Earned value calculator
Enter the project budget and three numbers from your status date: the value of work planned so far, the value of work actually done, and what it has cost. The calculator returns the cost and schedule variances, the performance indexes CPI and SPI, the forecast cost at completion and how efficiently the rest of the work must be done to stay on budget.
Runs in your browser: nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Enter the budget at completion, the total planned cost of the project.
- Enter the planned value: the budgeted cost of the work scheduled up to today.
- Enter the earned value: the budgeted cost of the work actually done up to today.
- Enter the actual cost spent up to today.
- Cost variance CV = EV − AC (negative: over budget)
- Schedule variance SV = EV − PV (negative: behind schedule)
- Cost performance index CPI = EV ÷ AC
- Schedule performance index SPI = EV ÷ PV
- Estimate at completion EAC = BAC ÷ CPI
- Estimate to complete ETC = EAC − AC
- Variance at completion VAC = BAC − EAC
- To-complete performance index TCPI = (BAC − EV) ÷ (BAC − AC)
Example
A project has a budget of 100,000. By the status date, work worth 50,000 was planned, work worth 45,000 is done, and 48,000 has been spent.
- CV = 45,000 − 48,000 = −3,000 (over budget); SV = 45,000 − 50,000 = −5,000 (behind schedule)
- CPI = 45,000 ÷ 48,000 = 0.9375; SPI = 45,000 ÷ 50,000 = 0.9
- EAC = 100,000 ÷ 0.9375 = 106,666.67; ETC = 106,666.67 − 48,000 = 58,666.67; VAC = −6,666.67
- TCPI = 55,000 ÷ 52,000 = 1.058: the rest must be done almost 6 % more efficiently to meet the budget
- 45 % of the work is complete
Common mistakes
- Using money spent as earned value. EV measures progress in budget terms; AC is what you paid.
- Comparing numbers from different dates: PV, EV and AC must all be measured up to the same status date.
- Reading SPI late in a project: when all work is done, EV = PV and SPI returns to 1 even if the project finished late.
Frequently asked questions
What do CPI and SPI mean?
CPI = EV ÷ AC shows how much work you get for each unit of money spent: 0.9 means 90 cents of planned work for every dollar. SPI = EV ÷ PV compares work done with work planned: 0.9 means you have done 90 % of what the plan expected by now. Above 1 is good, below 1 is a problem.
How is the estimate at completion calculated?
Here EAC = BAC ÷ CPI, which assumes the rest of the work will cost what the work so far has cost per unit. It is the most common formula. Others exist, for example AC + (BAC − EV) when the overrun is a one-off, or one that also uses SPI; pick the one your organisation uses.
What is TCPI?
The to-complete performance index, (BAC − EV) ÷ (BAC − AC): the cost efficiency the remaining work needs to finish on the original budget. A TCPI of 1.06 means the team must be 6 % more efficient than planned from now on.
What units should I use?
Any, as long as all four numbers use the same one: money, hours or points. The variances and forecasts come out in that unit; the indexes have no unit.
Where do I get the earned value?
Multiply the budget of each task by its percent complete and add them up, or add the budgets of finished work packages. EV is the planned cost of the work actually done, not the money spent.