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Earned Value Management

Updated

Overview

Earned Value Management helps you compare a project's planned progress with its actual progress and costs. It uses the project's contract or budget amount, logged percent complete, and actual costs to show how the project is progressing over time.

When Earned Value Management is enabled, an Earned Value tab is available in the project's Analysis section under Project Center > Overview. The Earned Value chart is also available in the Snapshot panel on the Projects List.

The chart displays three lines:

  • Planned Value shows the planned value of the project over its dates based on the contract amount or budget.
  • Earned Value shows the value of completed work based on the project's logged percent complete.
  • Used shows the actual costs based on the project's logged time and expenses.

The chart also includes forecast information to help you compare the projected project outcome with the total contract or budget amount.

You can view Earned Value data in Contract View or Budget View. Contract View measures progress against the client fee. Budget View measures progress against the internal project budget using the amount and dates of each budget line item.

Earned Value Management is turned off by default. After you enable it, CORE automatically captures changes to a project's percent complete as dated history. CORE captures up to one entry per item per day. This history is used for the Earned Value chart and is available in Review History.

Field Descriptions

How To

Turn on Earned Value Management

View a Projects Earned Value Chart

Edit the Percent Complete History

Field Descriptions

Settings > Projects > General >
Enable Earned Value Management tracking. Turns on Earned Value Management for the company. Once enabled, percent complete changes anywhere in CORE are automatically captured as a dated Earned Value entry, up to one entry per item per day. Existing projects do not have history invented for them; capture begins from the date this setting is turned on, while the planned and actual cost lines still draw across each project's full history.
Projects > Project Center > Overview > Analysis > Earned Value >
Contract View / Budget View Switches the basis the chart is measured against. Contract View measures progress against the client fee (the contract amount). Budget View measures progress against the internal budget, built bottom-up from each budget line item's own amount and dates. Your last selection is remembered the next time you open the chart. If a project has only a contract amount or only a budget, the unavailable tab is disabled with a short explanation.
Planned line

Shows where the project should be if work proceeded evenly against its fee or budget. In Contract View, this is a straight ramp from zero at the project start to the full contract amount at the project end. In Budget View, it is the sum of every budget line item's own ramp, so it steepens where several line items are active at once and flattens where none are.

Example: a budget line item worth $50,000 running from day 50 to day 150 adds $500 a day to this line for that stretch, and nothing before or after it.

If a project's contract amount, budget, or dates change after progress has already been logged, this line recalculates against the new values.
Earned line

Shows the dollar value of the work actually done, based on logged percent complete. It ramps smoothly between each logged entry rather than jumping, so a value between two updates is estimated proportionally, and the line always passes exactly through what was logged.

In Budget View, this line is built from progress logged against each individual budget line item rather than one percentage for the whole project; a line item's contribution is scaled by its own share of the total budget.

Note: logged percent complete values and their dates are never altered when a contract amount, budget, or set of dates changes; only the dollar amounts they are measured against are recalculated.
Actual cost line Shows the running total of what has actually been spent, based on logged time and expense cost amounts, both billable and non-billable. This line only reflects real transactions, so it is plotted up to today and never projects forward. Time and expenses logged against extra service items or extra expenses are excluded, matching how the rest of the project screen treats them. This line is labeled Used on the chart.
Forecast tiles

Three tiles above the chart project where the project is heading, based on performance so far. Each has an info icon with its plain-language definition and formula.

  • Estimated cost at completion: the projected total cost of the project once it is finished, based on cost performance so far.
  • Estimated cost to complete: the cost still expected to be spent from today until the project finishes.
  • Budget variance at completion: how far the project is forecast to land under or over budget, shown as both a dollar amount and a percentage.

If nothing has been spent yet, all three tiles show as unavailable rather than a misleading zero. A dashed line projects from today's actual spend to the forecast total cost at the project's end date, so you can see visually whether that projection lands above or below the budget reference line.
Chart period

The chart's horizontal axis is always shown in months, defaulting to a 24-month window. For a project longer than 24 months, the window centers on today with a couple of months of room ahead; for a shorter project, it spans the project's own start and end dates.

Switch to a Custom range, up to 24 months wide, using a year-and-month picker to jump quickly to a distant period. Zooming into a custom range redraws the chart to fit just the data in that window. In Budget View, a Today line and an End Date marker orient you on the timeline; either is hidden automatically if it falls outside the range currently in view.
Parent and Main projects Percent complete is captured at the leaf level, on phases and budget line items. A Main-type parent project does not track its own separate progress; its chart is always a rollup of everything beneath it, and its timeline spans from the earliest phase's start to the latest phase's end. If a phase or budget line item is missing a start date, end date, or amount, it is left out of the rollup and a tooltip on the chart notes that one or more items were excluded.
Earned Value > Earned Value Management >
Columns
  • Effective Date: the date the entry applies to.
  • PM % Complete: the percent complete value logged on that date.
  • Contract Amount: the contract amount in effect on that date, read-only, shown in Contract View.
  • Budget Amount: the budget amount in effect on that date, read-only, shown in Budget View.
  • Earned Value: the calculated earned value for that entry, on the active view's basis.
  • Last Edited: the date the entry was last changed, from whichever screen triggered it, such as Project Overview, Structure, Settings, Project List, or Billing.
  • Last Edited By: the employee whose action produced the change.
Entry rules
  • You can backdate an entry, but you cannot date one in the future.
  • Only one entry is allowed per effective date. A manual duplicate is blocked with a message, though an automatic same-day capture simply overwrites that day's entry.
  • You can delete a past entry, though not today's, after confirming; the remaining history automatically re-links so it stays continuous.
Export You can export the grid to a spreadsheet file. The export includes the same columns shown in the grid, reflecting whichever basis is currently active.

Note: Earned Value Management is related to, but distinct from, the Project Earned Value & Spent report (formerly named Earned Value). The report shows contract amount, percent complete entered by the project manager, earned value, contract percent spent, and spent amount for each project and phase, as a point-in-time snapshot. It has no planned baseline, so it cannot show whether a project is ahead of or behind schedule the way the Earned Value chart does. To track earned value against a planned baseline over time, use the Earned Value tab on the project's Overview screen instead.

Turn on Earned Value Management

To turn on Earned Value Management for your company, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Settings.


     
  2. Turn on Enable Earned Value Management tracking. 
  3. Click Save.

After you turn on Earned Value Management, CORE begins capturing percent complete changes from that point forward. CORE does not create or backfill history for progress changes that were not previously logged.

If you turn off Earned Value Management and later turn it back on, previously captured data is retained. The chart shows the earlier captured points, a flat gap for the period when the feature was off, and new points captured from the date you turn it back on.

View a Project's Earned Value Chart

To view a project's Earned Value chart, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Settings.
    Projects Overview.jpg
  2. In the list view, click dropdown-caret.png on a project row and select View Details.
  3. In the Project Center view, go to the Overview tab.
  4. In the Analysis section, select the Earned Value tab. 
  5. Use the Contract View and Budget View tabs to switch which basis the chart is measured against. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
  6. Use the period control to switch between the default window and a custom date range.

Review or Edit the Percent Complete History

Every entry point into Earned Value Management, including the Earned Value tab, the Projects List Snapshot panel, and the row actions for a budget line item, opens the same Earned Value Management screen. The screen displays the Review History grid for the selected project or budget line item. 

The editing options in the Review History grid depend on where you opened the screen:

  • A Main type parent is always read-only in both Contract View and Budget View because its values are rolled up from its child phases and are not captured directly.
  • A phase or standard single project can be edited in Contract View but is read-only in Budget View because changes in Budget View cannot be attributed to a specific budget line item.
  • A budget line item can be edited in Budget View only.

The following rules apply to Review History entries:

  • You can enter an effective date in the past, but you cannot enter a future date.
  • Only one entry can exist for each effective date. CORE prevents duplicate manual entries for the same date. Automatic same-day capture replaces the existing entry for that date.
  • A later entry can have a lower percent complete than an earlier entry. This allows you to correct an over-reported value or record a genuine decrease in progress. When this occurs, the Earned Value line shows a downward segment between the two entries.
  • You can delete a past entry after confirming the deletion. You cannot delete the current day's entry. After an entry is deleted, the remaining history is automatically re-linked to maintain continuity.

To review or edit a project's percent complete history, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Projects screen from the side menu > Settings.
    Projects Overview.jpg
  2. In the list view, click dropdown-caret.png on a project row and select View Details.
  3. In the Project Center view, go to the Overview tab.
  4. In the Analysis section, select the Earned Value tab. 
  5. From the Earned Value tab, click and select Review History.
  6. To add an entry, enter a percent complete value and an effective date (today's date is filled in by default), then click Save Changes. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
  7. To delete a past entry, select the Delete option on that row and confirm.
  8. To export the grid, select the export option.

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