> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://portavi.gitbook.io/portavi-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://portavi.gitbook.io/portavi-docs/budgets/earned-value.md).

# Earned value analysis

For projects with a completion date, Portavi computes full earned-value metrics. This page explains what each one means in plain terms.

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## What you get, by shape

| The work                       | Metrics                                                                                    |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Project with a finish date** | Full earned value: PV, EV, AC, CPI, SPI, EAC, VAC                                          |
| **Programme with an end date** | Spend against plan: planned-to-date, variance, burn rate, projected total                  |
| **Anything rate-funded**       | Spend against the funding plan, burn rate, cost per completed task, projected annual spend |

{% hint style="info" %}
**A programme's own overhead gets spend-against-plan, not earned value.** There is no measurable percent complete for programme management itself, so an earned-value figure would be fabricated. Its projects still get full earned value individually.
{% endhint %}

## The metrics

**PV: Planned Value.** What you planned to have spent by now.

**EV: Earned Value.** The value of what has actually been completed, measured against the baseline.

**AC: Actual Cost.** What you have actually spent.

**CPI: Cost Performance Index.** `EV ÷ AC`. Above 1 is under budget, below 1 is over.

**SPI: Schedule Performance Index.** `EV ÷ PV`. Above 1 is ahead of schedule, below 1 is behind.

**EAC: Estimate at Completion.** What the project is projected to cost in total at the current rate.

**VAC: Variance at Completion.** `BAC − EAC`. Negative means projected overspend.

## Reading them together

CPI and VAC always agree: a CPI below 1 and a negative VAC are the same fact stated two ways. If a project is over budget, both say so.

## About SPI

{% hint style="warning" %}
Portavi's planned-value baseline is a **straight line**: spend spread evenly across the project's duration, because there is no time-phased budget per phase. SPI is therefore approximate. Every screen showing SPI says so, and the reports print the caveat rather than implying accuracy that is not there.
{% endhint %}

## Roll-ups

A programme's CPI is the **sum** of its children's earned value over the **sum** of their actual cost, never an average of their CPIs. Averaging would let a small project weigh as heavily as a large one.

Nulls stay null. No spend recorded yet is not infinite cost efficiency, so Portavi reports it as unknown rather than inventing a number.