Earned value screen

A schedule says nothing about money. Three numbers per work package — budget, physical percent complete, actual cost — and the forecast for the whole project appears while there is still something to do about it.

Download

1 · Your work packages

One row per package, in the same cut your actual costs are recorded in. Physical percent means measured progress — tonnes welded, metres of pipe, metres of cable, m² coated — not a percentage given by eye.

This page runs entirely in your browser. What you type is saved on this device only — so a refresh does not lose your figures — and never reaches any server: no upload, no email, no analytics. Save the file and it works with no connection at all.

Work package Budget Physical complete, % Actual cost to date

2 · Result

Budget at completion
—
Value of work performed
—
Spent so far
—
CPI
—
Forecast at completion
—
Fill in at least one packageBudget, physical percent and actual cost. The forecast appears from the first row.

3 · Package by package

The total hides which package is bleeding. This table does not.

Package Value performed Spent CPI Forecast Variance

4 · How to get the third row of data

  1. Break the budget into the same packages in which actual cost is recorded. In most yards these two cuts differ — that mismatch is the first obstacle and the first piece of work.
  2. Give every package one measurable progress indicator: tonnes welded, metres of pipe run, metres of cable pulled, m² blasted or coated. Write the indicator into the package definition, once.
  3. Once a month read the indicator and compute: value performed = package budget × physical percent.
  4. Divide by what was actually spent. Below 1.00 means the package is costing more than the work is worth, and it will keep doing so.
  5. Forecast = budget ÷ CPI. Compare it with the contract price. Do this from 20–25% completion, not at close.
What this is and is not

This page computes cost, not schedule. The schedule index (SPI) needs a planned value curve — what should have been earned by today — which is a different input and is not asked for here. It is left out deliberately: the documented case this page is built on had a perfect schedule index and lost €2.1 million anyway.

The forecast assumes the cost performance so far continues. That is the standard assumption (EAC = BAC ÷ CPI). If you know a specific reason the rest will run differently, the forecast is a floor to argue with, not a verdict.

Percent by eye destroys the whole calculation. A progress figure produced to match the milestone gives an earned value that matches the milestone. The indicator has to be countable by someone who is not being measured by it.

If you cannot fill this table — that is the finding. It means the yard holds two of the three rows of data (planned budget, actual cost) and cannot tell "on time" apart from "on budget" until the project closes.

Next step

This is one reading, taken by hand today. The same count can run by itself on a project you have on the floor now: the documents your yard already produces go to one place, and every week the count comes back — leak by package, forecast to completion — without anyone stopping to take a measurement.

How that works →

Ask on WhatsApp Write to hello@