Earned Value Management · CPI · SPI · EAC

Earned value calculator

Enter the budget, planned value, earned value and actual cost of your project. Get CPI, SPI, cost and schedule variance, estimate at completion and TCPI instantly. Free, no sign-up.

Budget at completion (BAC) Total approved budget of the project Actual cost (AC) What has actually been spent to date Planned value (PV) Budgeted cost of work scheduled to date. Amount or % of BAC Earned value (EV) Budgeted cost of work actually completed. Amount or % of BAC

Planned, earned and actual

Bars are scaled to BAC

What is earned value management?

Earned value management (EVM) measures project performance by comparing three numbers at a status date: what you planned to do (planned value), what you actually did (earned value) and what it cost (actual cost). Together they show whether a project is over or under budget, ahead of or behind schedule, and where it is likely to finish.

Earned value formulas

Metric	Formula	Meaning
CV	EV − AC	Cost variance. Negative means over budget.
SV	EV − PV	Schedule variance. Negative means behind schedule.
CPI	EV ÷ AC	Cost performance index. Below 1.00 means each unit of money buys less than planned.
SPI	EV ÷ PV	Schedule performance index. Below 1.00 means work is progressing slower than planned.
EAC	BAC ÷ CPI	Estimate at completion, assuming current cost performance continues.
EAC	AC + (BAC − EV)	Estimate at completion, if the remaining work is done at the budgeted rate.
EAC	AC + (BAC − EV) ÷ (CPI × SPI)	Estimate at completion, when both cost and schedule performance affect the remaining work.
ETC	EAC − AC	Estimate to complete: money still needed.
VAC	BAC − EAC	Variance at completion. Negative means a forecast overrun.
TCPI	(BAC − EV) ÷ (BAC − AC)	To-complete performance index: the CPI needed on the remaining work to finish on budget.

Worked example

A project has a budget of 1,000,000. At the status date, the schedule says 50% of the work should be done (PV = 500,000), 40% is actually done (EV = 400,000) and 450,000 has been spent (AC = 450,000).

CPI = 400,000 ÷ 450,000 = 0.89: over budget.
SPI = 400,000 ÷ 500,000 = 0.80: behind schedule.
CV = −50,000 and SV = −100,000.
EAC (BAC ÷ CPI) = 1,125,000, so the forecast overrun (VAC) is −125,000.
TCPI = 600,000 ÷ 550,000 = 1.09: the remaining work must be done 9% more efficiently to finish on budget.

These are the default values in the calculator above.

How to read CPI and SPI

CPI and SPI both above 1.00: under budget and ahead of schedule.
CPI below 1.00: work costs more than planned. Check unit rates, productivity and scope changes.
SPI below 1.00: less work done than planned. Check the critical path, resources and approvals.
TCPI well above CPI: finishing on budget is unrealistic without corrective action; revise the forecast.

SPI near the end. Classic SPI tends toward 1.00 as a late project approaches completion, because EV and PV both converge on BAC. For late-stage projects, also look at the remaining critical path and earned schedule.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate earned value?

Earned value is the budgeted cost of the work actually completed: EV = BAC × percent complete. For example, 40% complete on a 1,000,000 budget gives EV = 400,000.

What is a good CPI?

A CPI of 1.00 means the project is exactly on budget. Above 1.00 is under budget, below 1.00 is over budget. Many teams flag projects with a CPI below 0.95 for review.

What is the difference between PV and EV?

Planned value is the budgeted cost of the work scheduled to be done by the status date. Earned value is the budgeted cost of the work actually done. Their difference is the schedule variance.

Which EAC formula should I use?

Use BAC ÷ CPI when current cost performance is expected to continue, AC + (BAC − EV) when the overrun was a one-off, and AC + (BAC − EV) ÷ (CPI × SPI) when a schedule delay is also driving cost.

What does TCPI tell me?

TCPI is the cost efficiency needed on the remaining work to finish on budget. A TCPI of 1.09 means every unit of remaining budget must deliver 9% more work than so far.

Formulas follow standard earned value practice (PMI PMBOK® Guide terminology). This page is for information; project decisions should rest on your own data and contract terms.