Financing mistakes on SolarMarket rarely show up as an error message. They show up as a buyer who's confused by a quotation that doesn't add up, an FI toggle that "just doesn't work," or commission that never unlocks. Here are the specific, mechanical mistakes behind those symptoms, and what actually fixes each one.

Mistake 1: Never submitting an FI partnership application

Why it happens: The FI checkbox is visible on every offer form whether or not you're eligible — it's just greyed out. Sellers who haven't read the warning line underneath it can spend months assuming FI "isn't working" rather than realizing they never actually applied.

The symptom: The "Allow bank / FI financing" checkbox stays permanently unclickable, with a small warning underneath saying to apply and get approved first — easy to skim past.

The fix: Go to Financing Eligibility and complete the full 6-section partnership application (business identity, location, product categories, experience, capabilities, and institution selection) — there is no other path to FI eligibility.

Mistake 2: Configuring a Hire Purchase schedule that doesn't add up

Why it happens: HP schedule rows can be added manually, with no validation forcing the down payment, financed amount, and instalment figures to be internally consistent. It's easy to type numbers that look plausible individually but don't reconcile.

The symptom: A buyer's Cumulative total (down payment plus all instalments) doesn't match the actual cash price of the offer — a mismatch that erodes trust in the whole quotation, not just the financing.

The fix: Use the "Quick Fill" tool to generate the schedule from three simple numbers (term, down %, interest %) instead of hand-entering rows, and check that the Cumulative column on the final row equals the cash price before saving.

Mistake 3: Leaving PayGo terms that don't total the intended price

Why it happens: PayGo's four fields (initial amount, periodic amount, periodicity, term units) are independent inputs with nothing forcing them to sum to a specific total — it's purely on the seller to do that arithmetic.

The symptom: A buyer on a PayGo plan ends up paying meaningfully more or less than the seller intended, discovered only after payments have already started.

The fix: Before saving, manually verify that initial amount + (periodic amount × term units) equals the total price you actually intend to charge for that offer.

Mistake 4: Forgetting that FI commission only unlocks after delivery, not approval

Why it happens: FI approval feels like the finish line — the buyer is financed, the deal is done. But approval and fulfillment are tracked as genuinely separate operational stages.

The symptom: A seller (or an agent attached to the sale) expects commission to be available as soon as a financed order is approved, and is confused when it isn't.

The fix: Treat FI approval as clearing the financing, not clearing the sale — delivery still has to happen operationally, and commission maturity depends on both. See the fulfillment-stage guide for the exact mechanics.

Mistake 5: Assuming an RBF subsidy is still active without checking

Why it happens: RBF plans are admin-managed and can expire; the offer form doesn't loudly announce expiry, it just quietly stops applying the subsidy.

The symptom: A buyer expects a subsidised "effective price" that no longer applies, because the linked plan expired without any alert to the seller.

The fix: Periodically check the expiry date shown against your linked RBF plan on the offer form, rather than assuming a subsidy that worked previously is still active today.

Why Mistake 1 hides the other four

A seller who never applies for FI (Mistake 1) will never encounter Mistakes 2-5 in an FI context at all — they simply have no FI-financed quotations to get wrong. But the same seller often still has HP or PayGo enabled, where Mistakes 2 and 3 are silently live on real offers. Fixing the FI application first doesn't prevent the other mistakes, but it does mean a seller who has been financing-inactive on FI should specifically go check their HP and PayGo configuration too, since those have been running unreviewed the whole time.

Consolidated checklist

• FI partnership application submitted and its approval status checked, not assumed.
• Every live Hire Purchase schedule's Cumulative column double-checked against the actual cash price.
• Every live PayGo schedule's total (initial + periodic × term units) checked against the intended price.
• FI commission timing understood as approval-plus-delivery, not approval alone.
• Any linked RBF plan's expiry checked periodically, not assumed permanent.

For the exact screens and fields behind each of these, see How to Apply for an FI Partnership, How to Set Up FI, RBF, PayGo, and Hire Purchase on an Offer, and FI Approved Orders and Delivery.