Dealer vs Distributor vs EPC vs System Integrator

A dealer primarily resells, a distributor primarily supplies a downstream network, an EPC delivers a contracted solar project, and a system integrator makes multiple pieces of equipment and controls work as one system.

That is the useful starting point, but it is not the final legal answer. Solar businesses often perform more than one role. The signed scope must decide who owns stock, the customer contract, system design, installation, commissioning, warranty intake, service work, payment risk, and performance obligations.

The four roles in one table

Use this as an operating comparison, not as a promise of Qbits programme terms. The current Qbits application lists all four roles, but the public page does not assign a fixed territory, margin, credit limit, stock requirement, service authority, or approval threshold to any of them.

The phrases may, often, and usually matter. A distributor can also execute projects. An EPC can run a retail counter. A dealer can employ engineers. A system integrator can take an entire turnkey contract. Capability does not settle the application route by itself. The proposed relationship does.

Choose Dealer when local resale is the main job

Select Dealer when the proposed Qbits relationship is mainly about selling inverters into a local market. Your customers might be homeowners, commercial buyers, installers, or smaller EPCs. You may keep stock, but warehouse ownership is not what makes the role a dealership.

The decisive question is simpler: are you primarily building a local sales route for the manufacturer’s products?

A dealer application should be able to describe:

• the customers and geography the business can serve now;
• how enquiries become quotations and orders;
• whether stock is held or ordered against demand;
• who handles delivery, product questions, and escalation; and
• which activities require separate technical or service authorisation.

Do not select Dealer because it sounds like the easiest entry point. If the business actually contracts for engineering and installation, that project responsibility needs to be disclosed. If local resale is the real scope, the Qbits dealer application guide covers the preparation and review process.

Choose Distributor when downstream supply is the main job

Select Distributor when the proposed role is to develop a wider market and supply other channel businesses. The downstream network may include dealers, EPCs, installers, or resellers, depending on the approved scope.

A distributor is not simply a dealer with a larger title. Distribution can add stock planning, warehouse control, transport, allocation, receivables, channel conflict, returns, model transitions, and demand forecasting. None of those duties or rights should be inferred from the word alone.

Before choosing this route, answer five questions:

1. Which downstream customer types do you already serve?
2. Which locations can you fulfil without inventing future capacity?
3. How will serial records, stock ageing, damage, and returns be controlled?
4. Which sales, technical, and service questions will your team own?
5. Which resources exist today, and which depend on approval or hiring?

If wider channel supply is the primary relationship, use the Qbits distributor registration walkthrough to prepare the application. Do not assume the distributor route includes exclusivity, sub-dealer appointment rights, credit, buyback, or a particular margin. Those points need current written terms.

Choose EPC when you contract to deliver the project

EPC means engineering, procurement, and construction. Choose this route when your business contracts to turn a customer’s project requirements into a designed, procured, installed, tested, and handed-over solar asset.

The EPC role is defined by project responsibility, not by where the inverter is purchased. An EPC can buy through a distributor, directly from a manufacturer, or through another approved route. That sourcing choice does not turn the EPC into a distributor.

An EPC scope may include:

• site survey and design inputs;
• drawings, calculations, equipment selection, and BOQ control;
• procurement and supplier coordination;
• civil, mechanical, and electrical construction;
• testing, commissioning, documentation, and handover; and
• defect, workmanship, and customer-escalation duties defined by contract.

Choose this option when those project obligations describe the proposed Qbits relationship. If the immediate need is only exact-model information or a bulk project quotation, a technical procurement route may fit better than a channel appointment. The Qbits datasheet library is the correct starting point for model documents.

Choose System Integrator when interface ownership is the main job

A system integrator makes separate equipment, software, communications, controls, and operating requirements function together. In a solar project, that might involve the inverter interface with third-party modules, compatible batteries, protection equipment, meters, monitoring, energy-management controls, or another plant system.

Qbits sells inverters. It does not imply that every other component in an integrated system is a Qbits product. The integrator must identify each supplier, confirm compatibility from current documents, and define who approves settings and interfaces.

The system-integrator route is useful when the difficult part of the assignment is not full project construction but technical coordination across boundaries. Its deliverables might include an interface schedule, communication map, control philosophy, settings register, test procedure, alarm matrix, and final configuration record.

This role can overlap with EPC. Use this distinction:

• If you contract for the complete engineering, procurement, and construction package, EPC is usually the clearer primary description.
• If you own a defined integration package inside a wider project, System Integrator is usually clearer.
• If you do both, identify the primary proposed Qbits scope and state the second capability rather than hiding it.

A service partner is a separate role

A sales label does not grant service authority. Dealer, Distributor, EPC, and System Integrator describe commercial or project routes. Authorised service work can require separate training, tools, records, parts control, safety procedures, claim authority, and geographic coverage.

Keep these permissions separate:

If service is part of your business, ask for the exact service scope in writing. Confirm models, geography, training status, tools, documentation, parts handling, labour and travel responsibility, data access, customer communication, and escalation.

What if your business fits more than one role?

Most overlap is manageable once the revenue stream and responsibility are separated.

Distributor plus EPC

One division may supply downstream businesses while another signs project contracts. Keep distribution stock, project procurement, customer invoices, warranty records, and liabilities traceable to the correct scope. A distribution appointment should not be treated as permission to make project-performance commitments for the manufacturer.

Dealer plus installer

A local dealer may also install systems. State both activities. Define whether installation is performed under the same entity, through employees, or through a subcontractor. A product sale and an installation contract create different duties even when one customer signs both on the same day.

EPC plus system integrator

An EPC may perform integration as part of turnkey delivery. On another project, the same company may be a specialist subcontractor responsible only for controls, monitoring, or equipment interfaces. Select the role that matches the proposed Qbits relationship, not the largest project the company has ever completed.

Reseller plus service centre

A business can sell and service, but the permissions should be explicit. Keep sales targets separate from service competence. Keep warranty intake separate from repair approval. Customers should know who is responsible at each stage.

Use the responsibility test, not the title test

Before selecting a role, write one sentence in this format:

We want to work with Qbits primarily as a [role], serving [customer type and geography], and we will own [commercial or project responsibility].

Then test the sentence against these questions:

1. Who signs the customer contract?
2. Who raises the purchase order and carries payment risk?
3. Who owns stock before the final sale or project issue?
4. Who approves the design and exact-model selection?
5. Who installs, tests, commissions, and hands over the system?
6. Who records serial numbers and keeps project documents?
7. Who receives a fault report and who is authorised to act?
8. Who carries workmanship, integration, or performance liability?

If the answers point to product resale, choose Dealer or Distributor based on the proposed channel scope. If they point to turnkey project delivery, choose EPC. If they centre on interfaces and coordinated operation, choose System Integrator.

Do not use a more impressive title to compensate for a thin operating plan. A precise role with honest limits is easier to evaluate than a broad label that hides who will do the work.

Confirm the role in the agreement

The application choice starts a conversation. It does not settle the appointment. Before investing, selling, ordering, or representing the business as authorised, make sure the final documents answer:

The solar dealer and distributor agreement checklist provides the detailed document review. Get appropriate legal, tax, accounting, insurance, and technical advice for the actual scope.

Choose the route that matches the work

Choose Dealer for primarily local resale, Distributor for wider downstream supply, EPC for contracted project delivery, or System Integrator for a defined equipment-and-controls integration scope. If two roles genuinely apply, select the primary proposed relationship and describe the overlap accurately.

When that choice is clear, complete the official Qbits partner application. Submission begins a review. It does not guarantee acceptance, territory, exclusivity, margin, credit, stock returns, service authorisation, lead volume, or a response date.

Sources checked 26 September 2026: the current Qbits partner application and its four business-type options, the current Qbits dealer and distributor guides, the Qbits content inventory, and the partner-channel research prepared for this production programme.