The CRM replacement built for clean energy installers
Most CRMs were built to close deals. Solar, heat pump and battery installers do not have a deal problem. They have a project problem. MCS submissions, DNO connections, materials against engineer certifications, install scheduling, commissioning, handover, year-three service. Payaca runs the whole project on one record, from cold lead to recurring service plan.
No credit card needed. ISO 27001 certified. Migration support included on Core and Growth plans.
Why generic CRMs do not survive a clean energy install
A CRM that was built to manage a sales pipeline can hold the first 5% of an installer's workflow. Everything from accepted proposal to commissioned, certified and paid sits somewhere else. Here is the part the CRM was never designed to do.
Deals end at "Closed Won". Projects do not.
The signed proposal is where installer work starts, not where it stops. Survey, design, MCS Installation Database submission, DNO application via the ENA Connect or HP/EV form, materials ordering, scheduling, commissioning, certification, handover, voucher claim, service plan. None of that sits cleanly in a deal pipeline.
See how Payaca handles it →Compliance is not a custom field.
MCS, MIS 3005 D/I (Design and Install), ENA HP/EV connection notifications, BUS V5 voucher applications, F-Gas records and MCS 020 (a) sound calculations are stage transitions with consequences, not free-text notes. Generic CRMs have no concept of a workflow gate that refuses to advance until the right document or approval exists.
See how Payaca handles it →Multi-technology is one customer, not three deals.
Solar plus battery plus EV charger is one quote, one installation, one handover. Heat pump plus solar plus service plan is one customer relationship that lasts a decade. Generic CRMs force this into separate deals, separate pipelines and lost relationships.
See how Payaca handles it →Field teams will not log into a sales tool.
Engineers on a roof in February do not want to log a call. They want today's schedule, the system design, the parts list, a commissioning checklist with photo evidence, and a customer signature. When the CRM mobile app is built for AEs, the field team disengages and your data stops reflecting reality.
See how Payaca handles it →How Payaca compares to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and an in-house build
Five tools. Ten operational dimensions clean energy installers told us they need. The matrix below is opinionated and direct. Deeper one-on-one comparisons live in the linked pages.
Payaca
- Project as the primitive
- Yes. One record from lead to year-three service.
- Compliance as a workflow gate
- Yes. Stage transitions blocked until tags, documents and approvals exist.
- MCS, DNO, BUS V5 integration
- Native fields and submission tracking.
- Multi-technology proposals
- Solar, battery, EV, heat pump on one quote.
- Materials and BOM tied to engineer certifications
- Native.
- Install scheduling
- Built in, tied to crew certifications and material lead times.
- Commissioning and handover
- Native checklists, photos, signatures, certificates.
- Customer portal
- Built in. Customers track from proposal to paid.
- Payments (Stripe and bank)
- Native. Deposits, milestones, balances, plans.
- Accounting flow (Xero, QuickBooks)
- Native two-way sync.
Salesforce
- Project as the primitive
- No. Deal closes; project lives elsewhere.
- Compliance as a workflow gate
- Build it yourself with custom objects.
- MCS, DNO, BUS V5 integration
- Not native; bolt-on or manual.
- Multi-technology proposals
- Custom objects per technology.
- Materials and BOM tied to engineer certifications
- Custom.
- Install scheduling
- Salesforce Field Service add-on; separate licence.
- Commissioning and handover
- Custom.
- Customer portal
- Experience Cloud add-on.
- Payments (Stripe and bank)
- Integration partner.
- Accounting flow (Xero, QuickBooks)
- Integration partner.
HubSpot
- Project as the primitive
- No. Deal closes; project lives elsewhere.
- Compliance as a workflow gate
- Build it yourself with workflows.
- MCS, DNO, BUS V5 integration
- Not native; bolt-on or manual.
- Multi-technology proposals
- Custom properties per technology.
- Materials and BOM tied to engineer certifications
- Not supported.
- Install scheduling
- Not supported.
- Commissioning and handover
- Not supported.
- Customer portal
- Service Hub add-on.
- Payments (Stripe and bank)
- Integration partner.
- Accounting flow (Xero, QuickBooks)
- Integration partner.
Pipedrive
- Project as the primitive
- No. Deal-only model.
- Compliance as a workflow gate
- Not supported.
- MCS, DNO, BUS V5 integration
- Not native.
- Multi-technology proposals
- Limited.
- Materials and BOM tied to engineer certifications
- Not supported.
- Install scheduling
- Not supported.
- Commissioning and handover
- Not supported.
- Customer portal
- Not supported.
- Payments (Stripe and bank)
- Integration partner.
- Accounting flow (Xero, QuickBooks)
- Integration partner.
In-house build
- Project as the primitive
- Maybe. Engineering-dependent.
- Compliance as a workflow gate
- Possible, but you maintain it forever.
- MCS, DNO, BUS V5 integration
- Custom build, custom maintenance.
- Multi-technology proposals
- Whatever you built.
- Materials and BOM tied to engineer certifications
- Custom build.
- Install scheduling
- Custom build.
- Commissioning and handover
- Custom build.
- Customer portal
- Custom build.
- Payments (Stripe and bank)
- Custom build.
- Accounting flow (Xero, QuickBooks)
- Custom build.
What Payaca actually does that a CRM cannot
Three capabilities show up in every CRM-replacement conversation. They are shipped product as of May 2026, not roadmap.
The unit of work is a project, not a deal
A single Payaca project carries lead capture, site survey, design integration with EasyPV, Heatpunk and OpenSolar, multi-option proposals with embedded yields and payment options, accepted contracts, deposit invoices, materials BOM, DNO submission, MCS documentation pack, scheduled install with engineer certifications validated, commissioning, customer handover, and the service plan that runs after. Office, finance and field see the same record.
Compliance is a stage gate, not a side-system
Payaca pipeline guards (live across 12+ franchises at OVO Solar and Heating) refuse to let a project advance until the conditions you set are met. Examples installers run today: deposit paid before procurement, MCS documents attached before commissioning, BUS V5 sound calculation present before claim submission, F-Gas record uploaded before sign-off. The mechanism is operational, not advisory.
One record from cold lead to year-three service
Multi-technology, end-to-end. Solar plus battery plus EV charger as one quote. Heat pump plus solar plus service plan as one customer. Integrated payments (Stripe and bank), Xero and QuickBooks accounting flow, customer portal, inbox tracking and automated communications. The relationship outlives the install.
What installers tell us about the switch
Anonymised patterns from CRM-assessment calls (Q1/Q2 2026). Real names available with consent.
“We spent six months setting up HubSpot and the team still would not use it. Quotes were in there, but every install lived in a Google Sheet. We were running two systems and reconciling them every Monday.”
“Salesforce was sold to us as the safe choice. Two years in we had a consultant on retainer to maintain something that still could not tell us whether a job was MCS-ready.”
“We built our own CRM in-house. It worked until growth made it the bottleneck. Two engineers were maintaining a system that handled 60% of our workflow and offloaded the other 40% to spreadsheets.”
CRM replacement FAQ
What does "CRM replacement" actually mean for a clean energy installer?
A platform that runs the operational side of the business as the primary record, not as a downstream extension of a sales pipeline. That includes lead, quote, contract, deposit, materials, MCS submission, DNO connection, install schedule, commissioning, handover, warranty registration and service plan. Payaca is built for that scope; generic CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) are built around the deal.
Do I lose my marketing tools if I move from HubSpot to Payaca?
Most installers keep HubSpot at the very top of the funnel for marketing email and lead capture, and run Payaca for everything operational. Your inbound forms, MailChimp or HubSpot marketing emails and lead lists can stay where they are. The operational system moves to Payaca.
Will my Salesforce data come across?
Yes. Customer records, deal history, contacts, notes and pipeline stages migrate during onboarding. We map your existing fields to Payaca and import structured data; we do not hand you an export and walk away. Most Growth-tier migrations complete inside 2 to 4 weeks.
How does Payaca handle MCS and DNO submissions?
MCS Installation Database details, MIS 3005 D/I documentation, BUS V5 voucher state and DNO submission status (via the ENA Connect portal or the HP/EV connection notification form for solar, batteries, heat pumps and EV chargers) live as fields and stage gates on the project. Stage transitions can be blocked until the right document or approval exists.
Is Payaca a good fit for a 10-person installer or a 50-person business?
Both. Core fits growing installers replacing spreadsheets or a generic CRM. Growth fits scaling installers with multiple sales reps, an ops manager and field crews. Scale supports franchise and enterprise networks (OVO Solar and Heating, for example, runs 12+ franchises on Payaca). The platform grows with the business.
Can I see how it compares to a specific tool?
Yes. Direct comparisons live at Payaca vs Salesforce, Payaca vs HubSpot, Payaca vs Pipedrive, and Payaca vs every other generic CRM, all linked above.
Related reading
See Payaca on your actual workflow
30-minute demo, tailored to your install volume, design tools and ops stack. Not a generic walkthrough.