Solar Equipment Distribution

How a Solar Equipment Distributor Fixed Dealer Credit and Warranty Claims

Industry

Solar Equipment Distribution

Tools Deployed

Zoho Books, CRM, Inventory

Timeline

14 Weeks

Team Size

3 Aaxonix Consultants

The Problem

Credit Limits Breached Daily

Dealers placed orders over their approved credit ceilings because the sales team and accounts team worked off separate spreadsheets with no real-time sync. By the time accounts flagged the breach, goods had already been dispatched.

Warranty Claims Backlog

Panels and inverters returned under warranty were tracked in a shared inbox with no structured status. Claims from channel partners piled up for weeks, causing MNRE subsidy eligibility disputes and dealer relationship strain.

Inventory Blind Spots

Stock counts at the warehouse and in transit were reconciled once a week at best. Dealers were sometimes committed stock that had already been allocated elsewhere, leading to short shipments and GST credit note disputes.

Solution Stack

Zoho Books

Dealer Credit Limit Enforcement

Each dealer account in Zoho Books was configured with a hard credit ceiling. Sales invoices above the outstanding threshold are blocked at creation. The accounts team receives an approval request and can grant a one-time override with a reason code, keeping a full audit trail. GST-compliant credit notes for warranty replacements are raised directly in Books, eliminating manual entry.

Zoho CRM

Warranty Claim Pipeline

A dedicated Warranty Claims module was built in Zoho CRM using custom record types. Each claim captures the serial number, installation date, fault description, dealer code, and MNRE subsidy reference. Automated workflows assign the claim to a product specialist within four hours and escalate unresolved claims at the 7-day mark. Status is visible to the dealer through the portal.

Zoho Inventory

Live Stock and Serial Tracking

Every panel and inverter unit is tracked by serial number in Zoho Inventory from goods receipt through to dealer dispatch. Available-to-promise quantities update in real time and are visible to the CRM so that warranty claim verification pulls the original sale record automatically. Transit stock is handled as an in-transit warehouse, eliminating the weekly reconciliation cycle.

Before vs After

Area	Before	After
Credit limit checks	Manual, checked after dispatch in many cases	Hard block at invoice creation in Zoho Books
Warranty claim status	Shared inbox, no ownership or SLA	CRM pipeline, assigned within 4 hours, escalated at 7 days
Stock visibility	Weekly spreadsheet reconciliation	Real-time serial-level tracking in Zoho Inventory
Warranty credit notes	Created manually in Tally, prone to GST errors	Auto-generated GST-compliant credit notes in Zoho Books
Overdue dealer balance review	Monthly review by accounts manager	Live aging dashboard, automated payment reminders
MNRE claim cross-reference	Manual lookup across separate registers	Warranty claim linked to original invoice and subsidy reference in CRM

Implementation Phases

Weeks 1 to 2

Discovery and Data Audit

Mapped all dealer accounts, outstanding balances, and credit limit agreements from existing Tally exports. Catalogued the 340 pending warranty claims in the shared inbox, classifying each by product line, age, and MNRE subsidy eligibility. Identified 12 dealer codes with no formal credit terms on file.

Weeks 3 to 5

Zoho Books Setup and Tally Migration

Migrated chart of accounts, dealer master, and opening balances from Tally. Configured GST tax groups covering 5% on Aaxonix Zoho for solar companies panels, 12% on inverters, and 18% on mounting structures. Set credit limits against all 87 active dealer accounts and enabled the invoice approval workflow for limit breaches.

Weeks 6 to 9

Zoho Inventory and CRM Build

Created the serial-number tracking flow in Zoho Inventory and set up the Warranty Claims module in Zoho CRM warranty claim tracking with custom fields, assignment rules, and the dealer-facing portal view. Integrated CRM and Inventory so claim verification auto-pulls the original sales record by serial number. Built the escalation blueprint for the 7-day SLA.

Weeks 10 to 12

UAT and Dealer Onboarding

Ran parallel operations with Books and Tally for two weeks to reconcile any discrepancies. Conducted two half-day training sessions for the accounts and sales operations teams. Uploaded dealer portal credentials and ran a live walkthrough with the top 20 dealers by volume.

Weeks 13 to 14

Go-Live and Hypercare

Cut over to Zoho Books as the system of record. Aaxonix consultants were on-site for the first week post go-live to handle edge cases, particularly around credit note reversals and transit stock reconciliation at month end.

Results at 90 Days

58%

Reduction in dealer credit overdue

Rs34L

Warranty claims recovered annually

43%

Faster warranty claim settlement

Average warranty claim resolution time (days)

Key Takeaway

For solar distributors managing multi-tier dealer networks, the root cause of overdue balances is almost always a visibility gap, not a willingness-to-pay problem. When the sales team can see live credit utilisation at the point of order and the accounts team can see it too, the conversations change. The same principle applies to warranty claims: an unresolved claim is a financial liability sitting in a shared inbox. Moving it into a structured workflow with ownership and SLAs turns it into a recoverable asset.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Zoho Books handle the different GST rates that apply to solar panels, inverters, and mounting hardware?

Yes. Zoho Books supports multiple tax groups, so each product category is tagged with the correct GST rate at the item master level. Panels attract 5% GST, inverters 12%, and mounting structures 18% under current MNRE and GST council guidance. The correct rate applies automatically when an invoice or credit note is raised, and the GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B reports aggregate the figures without manual splitting.

How does the credit limit workflow handle dealers who need a temporary increase during high-demand periods?

The approval workflow in Zoho Books allows the accounts manager to grant a one-time credit override for a specific invoice. The override is logged with a reason code and the approver’s name. A separate credit limit review process, triggered from a Zoho CRM workflow, lets the sales head formally revise the limit for a defined period, after which it reverts automatically. Both actions are visible in the dealer account audit trail.

What happens to warranty claims that involve MNRE subsidy-linked installations?

The Warranty Claims module in Zoho CRM includes a field for the MNRE project reference and subsidy disbursement status. When a claim is raised for a subsidised installation, the product specialist can cross-reference the original invoice, installation date, and subsidy reference before recommending replacement or repair. This documentation is critical if the channel partner needs to report the fault to the MNRE portal or revalidate subsidy eligibility after a component swap.

How long does a typical Zoho Books and CRM implementation take for a distributor of this size?

For a distributor with 80 to 120 active dealer accounts, a product catalogue of 50 to 200 SKUs, and an existing Tally setup, the full implementation including data migration, workflow configuration, UAT, and training typically takes 12 to 16 weeks. The timeline extends when serial-number tracking needs to be back-populated for existing inventory or when the dealer portal requires custom branding and access-level configurations.

How a Solar Equipment Distributor Fixed Dealer Credit and Warranty Claims

Challenge

Solution

Tools

How a Solar Equipment Distributor Fixed Dealer Credit and Warranty Claims