For solar & storage installers
Two agencies.One QR code.
Every other trade answers to a building department. You answer to a building department and a utility, on two schedules, with two document sets that overlap but are never quite the same. The placard is where they finally meet.
- Permits: Electrical / PV permit
- Approved plans: Site plan + array layout
- Approved plans: Electrical one-line diagram
- Engineering: Structural attachment letter
- Engineering: Module + inverter cut sheets
- Inspections: Rough electrical — passed
↑ What one scan puts in a phone. Example content — your job page shows your files.
Two paper trails, one roof
Why solar is differentSolar is already the most digitised trade on a residential site. Many jurisdictions now issue PV permits through online portals, some through automated review platforms that turn a compliant design around the same day, and interconnection applications have been web forms for years. The design tools, the proposal, the load calc, the one-line — all of it starts as a file. Almost none of it ends up on the job.
What lands on the roof instead is a printout: whichever version of the plan set the office happened to print, in a folder, in the lead installer's truck. That is where the digital chain breaks, and it breaks precisely at the point where two separate approval processes have to line up. The AHJ cares about the structural attachment, the conductor sizing, the rapid-shutdown labelling and the setbacks. The utility cares about the point of interconnection, the busbar rating, the meter, and the production meter socket. Different reviewers, different revisions, different timelines — and both of them eventually send somebody to the address.
A QR placard gives both trails one physical destination. The interconnection approval and the building permit sit next to each other, the current one-line is the only one-line, and whoever arrives — your electrician, the AHJ inspector, the utility tech doing the meter swap — reads the same set on their phone.
Where solar paperwork desynchronises
Four failure modesThe plan set was revised after it printed
Plan review comes back with a correction: relocate a conduit run, resize a conductor, move the array off a setback. The office redraws it. The truck still has the version from before review, and it is indistinguishable from the approved one at a glance.
The two approvals arrive weeks apart
Permit issued in days, interconnection approval in weeks, permission to operate after that. Whoever is on site mid-sequence has no way to know which stage the job is actually at without calling the office and asking.
Cut sheets are needed at the worst moment
An inspector asks which inverter model is on the wall and what the listed rapid-shutdown device is. The answer is in a PDF from the distributor that lives in someone's email, and the crew is standing on a roof with no way to open it.
The subcontracted electrician is not your crew
Plenty of installers sub the electrical. That electrician arrives once, does the service work, and leaves. Handing him the correct one-line has to happen without a meeting, or it happens badly.
The two files, side by side
Overlapping, never identicalThese two columns share a job, an address, and about half their contents — and they are almost never at the same stage on the same day. Everything below is common practice rather than a rule; the specifics depend on your jurisdiction and your interconnecting utility.
Building department
AHJWhether it is built safely and to the approved design.
Documents
- Building and electrical permit
- Stamped plan set and array layout
- Electrical one-line and label schedule
- Structural attachment / roof loading letter
- Equipment listing and cut sheets
Who comes to site
Rough electrical, mounting, final inspection.
Utility
InterconnectionWhether the system can safely connect to their grid.
Documents
- Interconnection application
- Approval to install
- Inverter and system size documentation
- Point of interconnection detail
- Permission to operate
Who comes to site
Meter exchange, and any witness or commissioning check.
One placard carries both columns. When the utility tech arrives to swap the meter and wants to see what was approved, he scans the same code the AHJ inspector scanned two weeks earlier — and gets the revision that is actually on the roof, not the one that printed before plan review sent it back.
What a solar placard carries
Both trails- P — PermitsPermits, as issued
- Building and electrical permits, plus any separate structural or ESS permit your jurisdiction issues. Permit numbers print on the placard face so they can be read out without scanning.
- A — Approved plansApproved plan set
- Site plan, array layout, mounting detail, and the stamped set as approved — including whatever changed during correction cycles. Superseded revisions hide with one click, so there is exactly one current set.
- A — Approved plansElectrical one-line
- The one-line and the placarding and labelling schedule. This is the single document most often asked for by an inspector standing at the service panel, and most often missing from the truck.
- E — EngineeringEquipment cut sheets
- Module, inverter, optimiser or microinverter, rapid-shutdown device, racking, and battery data sheets. Listing documentation for the exact model numbers you installed, not the ones in the original proposal.
- E — EngineeringStructural and interconnection paperwork
- The engineer's attachment or roof-loading letter, and the utility interconnection application and approval. Keeping the utility file on the same page as the AHJ file is the whole reason this page exists for your trade.
- I — InspectionsInspection results
- Rough electrical, mounting or structural, and final — plus a note when the utility signs off. The next visitor can see what has already passed before they schedule anything.
How it fits a PV install
Three steps- 01
Create the job at permit submittal
You already have every file in digital form. Drag in the plan set, the one-line, and the cut sheets at the moment you submit, and the site page exists before the crew is scheduled.
- 02
Placard goes up on install day
Post it wherever your jurisdiction expects site documents — commonly at the service panel or with the posted permit. One letter sheet, sleeved.
- 03
Add approvals as they land
Interconnection approval, inspection results, permission to operate. Upload each one as it arrives and everyone still at the address sees the current state without asking.
General notes
DryPlans does not replace a required posting or any utility filing
Many jurisdictions require the physical permit card to be posted and visible, and some require a printed plan set to be available on site during inspection. Utility interconnection has its own filing requirements that no third-party page satisfies. DryPlans holds copies so the people at the address can read them; it does not submit anything, and it is not a substitute for either process. Requirements vary widely by jurisdiction and by utility, so confirm both with your building department and your interconnecting utility.
Solar questions
Straight answers- Our jurisdiction already uses an online permitting platform. Does this duplicate that?
- No. Those platforms handle submittal, review, and issuance — the transaction between you and the building department. They are not where a crew standing on a roof at 7am goes to read a mounting detail, and they generally have nothing to do with your utility file. DryPlans is the job-site end: one address, one code, every document the people physically present might need.
- Can we keep the interconnection file private from the homeowner?
- Every document has a visibility toggle, so you can post the permit set publicly and keep anything else hidden. Bear in mind the page itself has no login — it is reachable by anyone with the link, which is exactly what makes it work for an inspector who is not going to make an account.
- We install batteries too. Is that a separate job?
- Usually not — a PV and storage install at one address is one job site with one placard. Add the ESS permit, the battery cut sheets, and any separate inspection result to the same page. If your jurisdiction issues them as genuinely separate permits, they can still live together, and both permit numbers can print on the placard.
- What happens after permission to operate?
- Archive the job. It stops counting toward your plan limit but the page stays live, so a warranty visit or a service call three years out still opens the as-built one-line and the exact equipment you installed.
Other trades
Same placard, different paperworkOne address.Both agencies. One code.
First job site is free and stays free. Put a placard on the next array and see whether your electrician still has to call the office.