Earned Value Management (EVM) Calculator

What is earned value management?

Earned value management (EVM) is a way of measuring project performance that combines scope, schedule and cost into one picture. Instead of asking only “how much have we spent?” or “are we on the timeline?”, EVM asks how much of the planned value has actually been delivered for the money spent. That single question exposes problems that budget reports and Gantt charts hide on their own, such as a project that is on budget only because work is running late.

The four inputs

• Planned value (PV): the budgeted cost of the work that should be complete by now according to the schedule.
• Earned value (EV): the budgeted cost of the work that actually is complete. If 40% of a 100,000 budget is done, EV is 40,000.
• Actual cost (AC): what has really been spent to get the work done so far.
• Budget at completion (BAC): the total approved budget for the whole project.

The most common mistake is confusing EV with AC. Earned value is measured in budget terms (what the completed work was supposed to cost), while actual cost is what it did cost.

EVM formulas

A worked example

A project has a total budget (BAC) of 120,000. By the end of month three the plan said 50,000 of work should be done (PV), but only 45,000 of work is actually complete (EV), and the team has spent 48,000 (AC).

• SPI = 45,000 ÷ 50,000 = 0.90: the project has delivered 90% of the work it planned, so it is behind schedule.
• CPI = 45,000 ÷ 48,000 = 0.94: every 1 spent produces 0.94 of value, so it is slightly over budget.
• SV = 45,000 − 50,000 = −5,000 and CV = 45,000 − 48,000 = −3,000.
• EAC = 120,000 ÷ 0.94 ≈ 128,000, so at the current efficiency the project will overrun by roughly 8,000.
• ETC = 128,000 − 48,000 ≈ 80,000 still to spend.

These are the default values in the calculator above, so you can change one input at a time and see how each metric responds.

How to read the results

Look at SPI and CPI together. A project that is behind schedule but under budget (SPI < 1, CPI > 1) is often simply under-resourced: the team is spending less because fewer people are working on it. A project that is ahead of schedule but over budget may be buying speed with overtime or contractors. The worst quadrant is both indices below 1.0, which usually points to scope or estimation problems that need a conversation with the sponsor, not just a recovery plan.

Trends matter more than a single reading. A CPI that has fallen from 1.05 to 0.94 over three months says more than a CPI of 0.94 on its own, which is why tracking these numbers continuously beats calculating them once for a steering committee.

EVM on agile projects

Agile teams can use the same formulas by measuring value in story points. Planned value comes from the points the release plan expected to finish by now, and earned value from the points actually completed to your Definition of Done. Your sprint velocity gives the expected pace, and cost per point turns points into money for CPI.

Tracking EVM continuously

A calculator is useful for a quick check, but spreadsheets go stale. Taskmei records planned value, earned value and actual cost per project and shows SPI and CPI on the project delivery and executive dashboards alongside RAG status and open risks, so leaders see the trend without waiting for a monthly report.