EVM Calculator & Project Health Check
To check a project's health with earned value management, enter four figures — Budget at Completion (BAC), Planned Value (PV), Earned Value (EV) and Actual Cost (AC). This calculator returns your cost and schedule status, a forecast final cost (EAC), the projected variance at completion (VAC), and the efficiency your remaining work must reach to recover (TCPI) — read together, not one metric at a time.
Free tool · No sign-up to calculate · Last updated 14 September 2026
How to read your EVM Health Check results
The calculator turns four inputs into a single picture of project health. Here is what each output means and what "good" looks like in practice.
Cost and schedule status (CPI and SPI)
CPI is your cost efficiency and SPI is your schedule efficiency. Exactly 1.0 means you are on plan; above 1.0 is favourable, below 1.0 is unfavourable. As practical rules of thumb — not official PMI thresholds — a reading between roughly 0.95 and 1.05 is broadly on track, 0.90 to 0.95 is worth watching closely, and sustained readings below 0.90 usually call for a correction plan.
What counts as a healthy CPI?
A CPI of 1.0 means you are spending exactly what the completed work is worth. There is no formal pass mark, but in practice a project drifting below about 0.90 is unlikely to hold its budget without intervention, because the gap compounds across the remaining scope. Treat CPI as a trend to watch over several reporting periods rather than a single verdict.
Your forecast (EAC and VAC)
EAC projects the final cost if current cost efficiency continues to the end. VAC is the gap between that forecast and your original budget: a negative VAC is the clearest early warning that you are heading for an overrun, and by how much.
Can you still recover? (TCPI)
TCPI is the cost efficiency the remaining work must achieve to still finish on the original budget. Compare it to your current CPI. If TCPI sits well above CPI — say your team is running at 0.84 but would need 1.28 to recover — the recovery is unrealistic, and the honest move is to forecast to the EAC rather than keep defending the old budget.
When to re-baseline
If the recovery TCPI is out of reach and the EAC has drifted materially from the approved BAC, continuing to report against the old baseline erodes credibility. That is usually the point to re-baseline to a realistic plan and communicate the revised budget and dates. This is guidance for judgement, not a fixed rule — the decision belongs to the project's governance.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good CPI or SPI?
An index of 1.0 means on plan. Above 1.0 is favourable, below 1.0 unfavourable. As a practical heuristic, 0.95–1.05 is broadly healthy, 0.90–0.95 warrants attention, and below 0.90 usually needs a correction plan. These are rules of thumb, not official PMI thresholds.
How do you calculate project health with earned value?
Compare earned value against actual cost and planned value. CPI = EV / AC shows cost efficiency, SPI = EV / PV shows schedule efficiency, EAC = BAC / CPI forecasts the final cost, and TCPI shows the efficiency needed to recover. Read together they give a fast, objective health read.
What does EAC tell me?
Estimate at Completion forecasts the total cost of the project if current performance continues. Compared with the budget (via VAC = BAC − EAC), it is an early signal of whether you will finish over or under budget.
When should I re-baseline a project?
Consider re-baselining when the efficiency needed to recover (TCPI) is unrealistic and the forecast (EAC) has moved materially away from the approved budget. Re-baselining resets the plan to something achievable; it is a governance decision, not an automatic one.
Is this the same as the PMP formulas?
It uses the earned value formulas but applies them together as a diagnostic. For each formula on its own, with definitions and worked examples, see the full PMP formulas reference.
