Earned Value Calculator
Calculate CPI, SPI, EAC, and ETC for project performance tracking.
About this calculator
Earned Value Management (EVM) compares three numbers at a single point in a project's life -- Budget at Completion (BAC), the percentage of work actually done, and the percentage that was supposed to be done by now -- and turns them into the set of standard performance indices defined by ANSI/EIA-748, the formal Earned Value Management Systems standard first published in 1998 and codified for day-to-day practitioners in PMI's Practice Standard for Earned Value Management. This isn't one calculator's take on project tracking; CPI, SPI, EAC, and the rest are the same formulas a federal contractor's EVM system is audited against. Earned Value (EV) is the budgeted cost of the work actually completed (BAC times percent complete); Planned Value (PV) is the budgeted cost of the work that was supposed to be complete by this point in the schedule. Cost Performance Index (CPI) compares EV to what was actually spent (Actual Cost, AC): a CPI below 1.0 means the project is spending more than the value of work it has earned, and above 1.0 means it is spending less.
Schedule Performance Index (SPI) compares EV to PV the same way, but for schedule rather than cost. From these, the calculator projects Estimate at Completion (EAC) -- what the total project is likely to cost if the current cost-efficiency trend continues -- along with Estimate to Complete (ETC), Variance at Completion (VAC), and To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI), the efficiency the remaining work would need to hit the original budget. All of these formulas assume the project's cost and schedule performance so far is a reasonable predictor of the work still ahead; a project that is about to change scope, staffing, or risk profile can make EAC and TCPI unreliable even when the arithmetic behind them is correct. CPI is left blank when no cost has been recorded yet -- there is no efficiency ratio to report with zero spent -- and TCPI is left blank once Actual Cost already meets or exceeds Budget at Completion, since at that point no efficiency level can bring the project in on the original budget.
Inputs
Results
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
0.91
Figures current as of 1998. Source: Electronic Industries Alliance. ANSI/EIA-748: Earned Value Management Systems. June 1998 (32-criteria standard, now maintained by NDIA's Integrated Program Management Division as ANSI/EIA-748-D). Formalized for practitioners in PMI's Practice Standard for Earned Value Management.
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the Budget at Completion (BAC) — the total approved budget for the project.
- Enter % Complete (Actual) — the real percentage of work finished so far.
- Input the Actual Cost (AC) — what has actually been spent to date.
- Enter % Planned Complete — the percentage the baseline schedule expected to be done by now.
- Review the Schedule Variance, Cost Variance, SPI, and CPI.
- A CPI below 1.0 means you are spending more than planned; use EAC to project final cost.
How the result changes with Actual Cost (AC)
| Actual Cost (AC) | Cost Performance Index (CPI) |
|---|---|
| $110,000.00 | 1.82 |
| $165,000.00 | 1.21 |
| $330,000.00 | 0.61 |
| $550,000.00 | 0.36 |
What each input means
- Budget at Completion (BAC)
- Total project budget.
- % Complete (Actual)
- Actual percentage of work completed.
- Actual Cost (AC)
- Actual cost spent to date.
- % Planned Complete
- Percentage of work that should be complete per schedule.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters4 parametersBudget at Completion (BAC) = 500000, % Complete (Actual) = 40, Actual Cost (AC) = 220000, % Planned Complete = 45 = 4 input(s) provided
- Calculate Cost Performance IndexCost Performance Index0.909 = 0.909
- Calculate Schedule Performance IndexSchedule Performance Index0.889 = 0.889
- Calculate Earned ValueEarned Value = ev200000 = $200,000
Figures and sources
- Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) standard and index formulas (CPI, SPI, EAC) (1998) — Electronic Industries Alliance. ANSI/EIA-748: Earned Value Management Systems. June 1998 (32-criteria standard, now maintained by NDIA's Integrated Program Management Division as ANSI/EIA-748-D). Formalized for practitioners in PMI's Practice Standard for Earned Value Management.
Engine last updated . Checked against 2 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Actual Cost not affect Earned Value at all?
Earned Value is defined purely as the budgeted cost of the work that has been completed -- Budget at Completion multiplied by percent complete -- so it reflects how much work got done, not how much it cost to do it. Actual Cost only enters later, when EV is compared against it to produce Cost Variance and CPI; changing what you spent does not retroactively change how much of the scope you finished.
Does a CPI below 1.0 always mean the project is in trouble?
It means the project has spent more than the value of the work it has earned so far, which is a real warning sign, but it is not automatically a crisis -- a single bad billing period, a front-loaded cost like equipment purchased early, or a temporary staffing overlap can all depress CPI without reflecting the project's true trajectory. CPI is most useful tracked over several reporting periods rather than read as a single snapshot.
How does raising the planned percent complete change Schedule Variance?
Schedule Variance is Earned Value minus Planned Value, and Planned Value rises directly with the planned percent complete while Earned Value does not move at all, so raising the planned percentage always pushes Schedule Variance down -- it makes the project look further behind schedule, holding everything actually accomplished constant.
Is the total project Budget at Completion the main driver of the Cost Performance Index?
Yes for CPI, no for SPI and EAC. Earned Value is BAC times percent complete, so CPI (EV divided by Actual Cost) scales directly with BAC -- doubling BAC roughly doubles CPI at the same Actual Cost. Schedule Performance Index and Estimate at Completion behave differently: SPI reduces to percent complete divided by planned percent complete with BAC cancelled out, and EAC (Actual Cost divided by percent complete) is likewise BAC-invariant. So a budget re-baseline moves CPI, Earned Value, Planned Value, and Variance at Completion, but leaves SPI and EAC unchanged.
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