Good questions.

Your quote becomes a deal the platform can finance. ArkFlow prices it across asset finance, rental, rent-to-own, PPA, subscription and mortgage add-on, prequalifies you, and packages the application for lenders, all non-binding until you accept an offer.

Your Financial Proposal comes back with every finance option priced against your quote. Accept it, prequalify, complete the quick application, and real offers flow back from the lender panel. Every step up to and including your offers is free and non-binding.

Preparing the deal takes about an afternoon: documents read themselves, prequalification runs immediately, and the lender-ready pack is built the same day. The pack then goes to all your chosen lenders at once, not one at a time, and offers typically come back within one to three business days, depending on the lender and the deal.

A financial proposal (FP) is the bankable version of a solar quote: the project cost with every finance structure priced side by side, shared as a live link or PDF, ready for the client to accept and for a lender to underwrite. ArkFlow generates it from the quote and the deal’s documents.

A solar finance originator turns a solar quote into a fundable deal and connects it to a lender. ArkFlow runs origination end to end: guided application, a document pack that reads itself, affordability, credit scorecard and KYC screening, then a packaged submission to South African banks including FNB, Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Investec, with offers coming back to the deal.

Yes. Every financial proposal prices cash, asset finance, rental, rent-to-own, subscription and PPA structures side by side against the same system, so the client compares ownership and monthly cost in one view before choosing a structure.

No and no. Prequalification is an instant, no-obligation read on what you could likely finance, it costs nothing, and it commits you to nothing, like everything else up to accepting a lender’s offer. It runs from your client portal: submit your quote, create your free account, and prequalify from there.

Only when you accept a lender’s offer. Submitting a quote, the financial proposal, prequalification, the quick application and receiving offers are all free and non-binding.

The finance application is finalised with the lender, you sign the contract, your EPC installs the system, and the installation is commissioned: switched on, signed off and producing.

Yes. EPCs manage their customers’ deal flow on ArkFlow, so your installer can submit the quote, prepare the application and track it through the lenders for you. The application stays yours: you give the consent behind every submission, and the offers come to you to accept or decline.

Not yet. ArkFlow does not produce solar quotes. Bring the quote you already have from an EPC and the platform gets it financed. If you do not have a quote yet, or want to sanity-check the one you have, ArkFlow connects you with an accredited EPC for a comparative quote. Request one in your client portal.

The deal reprices. Your financial proposal and offers are built from the quote, so an updated quote flows through to updated pricing before anything is signed.

Solar asset finance (also called an instalment sale, equipment finance or a solar loan) is a bank loan that makes the system yours from day 1. You pay a fixed monthly instalment over 3 to 7 years, a deposit of around 10% is possible, and maintenance and insurance are yours to arrange (insurance is quoted separately). It typically carries the lowest total cost of ownership, and commercial buyers can claim the Section 12B tax deduction.

Yes. An add-to-bond (also called a mortgage add-on, bond extension or home-loan readvance) funds the system from your home loan, so you own it from day 1 and repay it inside your existing bond repayment at home-loan rates, usually the cheapest debt available. It is offered on residential properties only.

Yes, ownership is the point. Rent-to-own (lease-to-own or rent2own) charges a slightly higher monthly amount than a pure rental because every payment builds toward the purchase; at the end of the 5 to 15 year term the system becomes yours for a small pre-agreed fee. Upfront cost is typically zero, and as with other ownership routes you arrange your own insurance (quoted separately).

Ownership. Under a rental or operating lease the provider owns the system throughout and you return, renew or upgrade at term end. No ownership ever transfers. Under rent-to-own your payments build toward the purchase and the system is yours at the end of the term.

A solar subscription is one all-in monthly fee with zero upfront cost, while the provider owns the system and bundles insurance and maintenance into the fee. It runs as a 5-year subscription: at the end of the term you renew or buy the system out. On ArkFlow it is offered for residential customers today.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) charges you per kilowatt-hour the system produces rather than for the hardware. There is zero upfront cost, and the provider owns, operates and maintains the plant over the 10 to 20 year term. On ArkFlow, PPAs are offered on commercial deals.

Typically yes. Ownership usually transfers to you at the end of the PPA term, and early buyout options are commonly available from around year 5 of the agreement.

Asset finance, rent-to-own and rental are offered on both residential and commercial deals. Add-to-bond and subscription are residential only, and PPA is commercial only.

It depends what you optimise for. Asset finance usually carries the lowest total cost of ownership if you can deploy the capital and instalment; add-to-bond typically has the cheapest interest rate because it prices at home-loan rates; and the usage models (rental, subscription and PPA) are cheapest upfront because they start at zero.

Section 12B is the Income Tax Act allowance that lets a business deduct qualifying renewable energy assets it owns. If you own the system (through asset finance or rent-to-own), you may be able to claim it yourself. In the usage models (PPA, rental and subscription) the tax benefit is typically priced into the funder’s return rather than claimed by you. We are not tax professionals. Confirm your position with your own advisor.

PPA, rental and subscription bundle insurance and operations & maintenance into the fee: the provider owns the system and keeps it running. Under asset finance and rent-to-own you arrange insurance yourself (it is quoted separately), and under asset finance and add-to-bond maintenance is yours because you own the system.

It depends on the model. A system you own (through asset finance or your bond) sells with the property and adds value to it. Provider-owned agreements like rental, subscription and PPA are dealt with under the agreement, typically by settling, transferring or assigning it. Check the specific terms before signing.

Generally yes. Buyout tables and early-settlement options exist for most products and are arranged per request: owned finance can usually be settled early on the lender’s terms, rentals let you upgrade at term end, subscriptions can be bought out after the term, and PPAs commonly carry early buyout options from around year 5.

A system you own does. That is one of the arguments for the ownership path (asset finance or add-to-bond), where the system becomes a fixture of the property you are selling.

The panel spans the major South African banks: FNB, Absa, Standard Bank (with its LookSee home-solar platform), Nedbank (with Avo and its asset-finance division MFC), Investec, Capitec, Al Baraka Bank (Shariah-compliant solar finance) and Land Bank (agricultural finance). Alongside them sit the specialist funders: Halfway Finance and Merchant West (asset finance), Recharge and Sunlyn (rental), Bravura and Decentral Energy (commercial PPA, with rent-to-own through Decentral), Jaltech (Section 12B solar investment funds) and Glint (residential subscription).

Yes. Al Baraka Bank, a South African Islamic bank with dedicated residential and commercial solar finance products, is on the panel. Ask for Shariah-compliant structuring when you apply and the application routes accordingly.

The banks fund the ownership path: asset finance and bond add-ons, with LookSee by Standard Bank and Avo by Nedbank covering residential solar finance and MFC (Nedbank) running asset finance. Al Baraka Bank offers Shariah-compliant solar finance on both residential and commercial deals, and Land Bank funds agricultural deals, including on-farm renewable energy through its Agro Energy Fund. The specialists cover the rest: Halfway Finance runs instalment sales, Merchant West asset finance, Recharge and Sunlyn rentals and operating leases, Bravura and Decentral Energy commercial PPAs (Decentral also offers rent-to-own, and serves estates and complexes), Jaltech funds solar projects through its Section 12B solar investment funds, and Glint runs residential subscriptions.

No. ArkFlow is a software platform, not a credit provider or financial services provider, and nothing on this site is financial or tax advice. You submit your own application; ArkFlow packages the information you provide, captures your consent and summarises the deal for the lenders you choose to apply to. The licensed lenders on the panel do the underwriting, run their own credit checks, make the offers and carry the credit.

Rates are prime-linked: a strong credit profile can price below prime, and rates range up to around prime +4. Rental, operating lease, subscription and PPA providers price on an internal rate of return and generally do not disclose an interest rate; asset finance and rent-to-own lenders may disclose theirs.

Residential deals typically run up to around R500,000, with larger systems possible through special lender approval (for example WesBank or MFC). Commercial deals typically start from around R250,000, and PPAs typically range from R2 million to R50 million.

Broadly four things: affordability against your income or cash flow, your credit profile, the quality of the quote being financed, and how complete the documentation is. ArkFlow’s prequalification checks the same things first, so weak applications are fixed before a credit team sees them.

Side by side in the platform. Offers land on the same deal, so you compare rate, term, escalations and total cost in one view before accepting one, and accepting is the only commitment you make.

Prequalification screens the deal before any lender sees it. ArkFlow runs affordability, a credit scorecard and KYC screening, analyses bank statements and financial statements, and produces a prequalification read: a deal strength score with the financial ratios behind it, so you see the deal’s risk profile, and what would strengthen it, before submitting. It is client-facing too: start with the simple view, or go in depth for a full application and financial vetting. You run it from your client portal: create your free account when you submit your quote, and prequalification is one of the first steps inside it.

No. ArkFlow never runs a bureau credit check. Prequalification is a no-footprint pre-vet built entirely from the information you provide. You give consent, and each lender runs its own credit check only when you apply to it.

Businesses typically need two or more years of trading history to qualify, though less can work where a strong off-taker or contract sits behind the deal. EPCs onboarding to the lender panel typically also need two or more years and a solid track record. That is the banks’ accreditation criteria.

Three ways. Prequalification pre-vets the deal before any lender sees it, so you can see upfront whether it is likely to fly or needs strengthening first. Every document lives in one vault and goes out as a single lender-ready summary report, instead of attachments lying everywhere. And all communication runs in one organised thread per deal, so nothing waits weeks in an inbox.

Nothing. ArkFlow is free end to end for customers, with no usage charge at any point. Submitting a quote, the financial proposal, prequalification, the quick application and receiving offers all cost you nothing, and accepting a lender’s offer is the only commitment you make.