Earned Value Management (EVM) Calculator

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Market

Imperial · sales tax

Budget at completion (BAC)

Total authorised budget for the work.

The baseline, including approved changes. Comparing performance against a baseline that has quietly moved is the most common way EVM is made to look better than reality.

Planned value (PV)

Budgeted cost of work scheduled to date.

What the baseline says should have been achieved by now, measured in budget currency.

Earned value (EV)

Budgeted cost of work actually completed.

Physical progress valued at baseline rates. This is the hard input: it requires an honest measure of what is genuinely complete, and optimistic percent-complete reporting corrupts every figure downstream of it.

Actual cost (AC)

What has actually been spent on that work.

Must cover the same scope and the same period as EV. Accruals matter — invoices not yet received are still cost incurred, and omitting them makes CPI look healthy for a month.

Estimate at completion

$1,166,667

High confidence

Over budget and behind schedule on the figures given. TCPI shows the efficiency the remaining work would need to still land on budget.

Cost performance index (CPI): 0.86
Schedule performance index (SPI): 0.9
Cost variance (CV): $-60,000
Schedule variance (SV): $-40,000
Variance at completion (VAC): $-166,667
Estimate to complete (ETC): $746,667
To-complete performance index (TCPI): 1.1
Percent complete: 36 %
Percent spent: 42 %

Then change the inputs to see how far the answer moves.

Show calculation logic

How this was calculated

Formula source(s)

PMBOK earned value definitions: CV = EV − AC; SV = EV − PV; CPI = EV ÷ AC; SPI = EV ÷ PV
EAC = BAC ÷ CPI where current cost performance is expected to continue; the most commonly used of several sanctioned formulas

Inputs used

Budget at completion (BAC): 1000000
Planned value (PV): 400000
Earned value (EV): 360000
Actual cost (AC): 420000

Intermediate steps

Cost performance index (CPI): 0.86
Schedule performance index (SPI): 0.9
Cost variance (CV): $-60,000
Schedule variance (SV): $-40,000
Variance at completion (VAC): $-166,667
Estimate to complete (ETC): $746,667
To-complete performance index (TCPI): 1.1
Percent complete: 36 %
Percent spent: 42 %

Final result$1,166,667

Confidence note: Over budget and behind schedule on the figures given. TCPI shows the efficiency the remaining work would need to still land on budget.

What this calculation does not cover

Every figure is only as good as the earned value input. Optimistic percent-complete reporting produces a healthy CPI on a failing project, and it is the standard failure mode of EVM in practice.
SPI is measured in currency, not time, and it converges to 1.0 as a project finishes regardless of how late it is — a project delivered a year late still ends with SPI = 1. Use the schedule network for time performance, not this index.
EAC here assumes current cost performance continues. Other sanctioned formulas assume the remainder runs to plan, or weight cost and schedule together; they give materially different answers on a troubled project.

Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.

Sources checked 2026-09-06 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1

Regulatory standards & verification citations2

PMBOK earned value definitions: CV = EV − AC; SV = EV − PV; CPI = EV ÷ AC; SPI = EV ÷ PV
EAC = BAC ÷ CPI where current cost performance is expected to continue; the most commonly used of several sanctioned formulas

Cite this page

Your workspace

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Now that you have the number

These guides cover the work this quantity is for — the first ones run this calculator inside the section that raises the question.

How to calculate earned value management (EVM) in 5 steps

Budget at completion (BAC)Total authorised budget for the work.

Planned value (PV)Budgeted cost of work scheduled to date.

Earned value (EV)Budgeted cost of work actually completed.

Actual cost (AC)What has actually been spent on that work.

Estimate at completionThe tool computes the estimate at completion from those figures and shows the formula, its sources, and a confidence rating alongside it.

Budget at completion (BAC)	Estimate at completion (currency)
100,000	116,667
200,000	233,333
500,000	583,333
1,000,000	1,166,667
2,000,000	2,333,333
5,000,000	5,833,333
10,000,000	11,666,667

Budget at completion (BAC)

Estimate at completion (currency)

100,000

116,667

200,000

233,333

500,000

583,333

1,000,000

1,166,667

2,000,000

2,333,333

5,000,000

5,833,333

10,000,000

11,666,667

Frequently asked questions

What does CPI actually tell me?

How much value you are getting per unit of money spent. A CPI of 0.857 means that for every pound spent you have earned 85.7 pence of budgeted work — you are getting about six pounds of progress for every seven you spend. Projected across the whole budget, that is where the estimate at completion comes from, and it is why a small CPI shortfall early is a large number at the end.

Why is SPI misleading late in a project?

Because it is measured in currency rather than time, and it mathematically converges to 1.0 as the work finishes. At completion, earned value equals planned value by definition — so a project delivered a year late still ends with a perfect schedule index. SPI is useful in the middle of a project and worthless at the end; time performance belongs to the schedule network.

What is TCPI for?

It is the reality check. TCPI is the cost efficiency the remaining work would have to achieve to still finish on the original budget. If your CPI is 0.86 and your TCPI is 1.12, you are being asked to believe the team will suddenly become thirty percent more efficient than it has been all project. Quantifying that gap is usually the most useful thing EVM does.

Can EVM be gamed?

Easily, and it usually is. Every index depends on earned value, and earned value depends on someone's assessment of what is complete. Optimistic percent-complete reporting produces a healthy CPI on a failing project right up until the last month. The defence is objective measures — units installed, milestones passed, tests witnessed — rather than a judgement of how far along something feels.