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Build a project review that compares costs and accepted progress with one approved baseline. Use a worked services project to calculate earned value, cost and schedule gaps, and milestone completion from exports.
A project KPI dashboard compares cost, accepted progress, and schedule with one approved baseline at the same status date. Start from the project budget, cost export, and milestone register, then show the exceptions that require a decision. Spending and progress must remain separate: money paid is not evidence that a deliverable is complete.
The baseline is the approved scope, work-package budget, and planned completion position. Preserve its version and approval date. A revised forecast can sit beside it, but should not quietly replace it whenever delivery slips.
The US Department of Energy describes earned value management as integrating the measurement of cost, schedule, and scope accomplishments. The practical business use is straightforward: compare the work accepted with the work planned, then compare the budgeted value of that accepted work with its actual cost.
For this approach, export the following records:
| File | Required fields | Owner's check |
|---|---|---|
| Approved budget and schedule | Project ID, package ID, baseline version, package budget, planned progress at status date | Sponsor confirms the approved scope and version |
| Cost detail | Project ID, package ID, posting date, labor, vendor cost, accrued cost | Finance reconciles included cost to the ledger |
| Progress register | Project ID, package ID, accepted completion, evidence date, approver | Delivery owner confirms acceptance evidence |
| Milestone register | Milestone ID, package ID, baseline due date, accepted date, status | Project manager checks overdue commitments |
Summarize costs to one row per work package before combining them with package budgets. Otherwise, repeating the full package budget on every invoice line inflates planned and earned value. Keep unmatched package IDs on an exception list until the owners resolve them.
Use KPI examples to choose supporting measures. The general KPI dashboard template supplies a broader status layout; the project comparison needs the baseline and acceptance checks below.
The fictional US consultancy Harbor Point Services reviews an implementation project on October 16, 2026. Its approved package budgets total $120,000. Planned and accepted progress are inputs from the schedule and acceptance register, using documented deliverable weights within each package.
Use columns A through E for the source inputs. Enter progress as percentages, so a cell displayed as 75% contains 0.75.
| Work package (A) | Budget (USD) (B) | Planned progress (C) | Accepted progress (D) | Actual cost (USD) (E) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | 40,000 | 100% | 100% | 42,000 |
| Configuration | 60,000 | 75% | 50% | 38,000 |
| Testing | 20,000 | 25% | 0% | 5,000 |
| Total | 120,000 | 85,000 |
Actual cost includes the project costs incurred through the status date, including the accrued work that finance has identified. The acceptance register, rather than payment status, supplies progress. Testing can therefore have cost without earning completion credit.
Do not estimate accepted progress solely from elapsed time or hours charged. If the team cannot support a reliable partial-completion percentage, define an acceptance rule for discrete deliverables before using this method. The rule should be consistent between reporting periods.
The key formulas are:
Planned value = Package budget × Planned progress
Earned value = Package budget × Accepted progress
Cost variance = Earned value − Actual cost
Schedule variance = Earned value − Planned value
In Google Sheets, add planned value in F2, earned value in G2, cost variance in H2, and schedule variance in I2. Fill these formulas through row 4:
F2: =B2*C2
G2: =B2*D2
H2: =G2-E2
I2: =G2-F2
The result is:
| Work package | Planned value (USD) | Earned value (USD) | Actual cost (USD) | Cost variance (USD) | Schedule variance (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | 40,000 | 40,000 | 42,000 | -2,000 | 0 |
| Configuration | 45,000 | 30,000 | 38,000 | -8,000 | -15,000 |
| Testing | 5,000 | 0 | 5,000 | -5,000 | -5,000 |
| Total | 90,000 | 70,000 | 85,000 | -15,000 | -20,000 |
Google documents SUMPRODUCT as summing products of corresponding entries in equally sized ranges. Use it to calculate the budget-weighted total directly from the input table:
Planned value: =SUMPRODUCT(B2:B4,C2:C4)
Earned value: =SUMPRODUCT(B2:B4,D2:D4)
Cost variance: =SUMPRODUCT(B2:B4,D2:D4)-SUM(E2:E4)
Schedule variance: =SUMPRODUCT(B2:B4,D2:D4)-SUMPRODUCT(B2:B4,C2:C4)
Accepted progress is 70,000 / 120,000 = 58.3%, against planned progress of 90,000 / 120,000 = 75.0%. The gap is -16.7 percentage points. Calculate with unrounded values and display percentages to one decimal place. Covirage is not affiliated with Google.
The project has earned $70,000 of budgeted work for $85,000 of actual cost. The negative $15,000 cost variance therefore identifies an unfavorable cost position for the work accepted so far.
The negative $20,000 schedule variance measures a shortfall in budgeted work value. It does not mean the project is a particular number of days late. Review actual milestone dates and the remaining schedule to understand time implications.
Configuration contributes a negative $8,000 cost variance and a negative $15,000 schedule variance. That makes it the first package to investigate, but the numbers alone do not explain the cause. Check the acceptance evidence, rework, staffing charges, and approved scope changes with the package owner.
A separate milestone register shows:
| Milestone | Baseline due date | Position at October 16, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Design approval | October 9, 2026 | Accepted |
| Configuration approval | October 16, 2026 | Open |
There are two milestones due and one accepted, so milestone completion is 1 / 2 = 50.0%. That percentage differs from 58.3% budget-weighted progress because the measures have different weights and purposes. Do not force them to match.
For delivery organized around iteration commitments, use the agile project dashboard for that distinct review. A project finance dashboard addresses financing and cash questions separately from this delivery comparison.
The package budgets must sum to the approved $120,000. The package costs must sum to $85,000 and reconcile to the project ledger plus the included accrual schedule, with no accrued invoice counted twice.
The planned values sum to $90,000 and the earned values to $70,000. Summed package cost variances must equal 70,000 − 85,000 = -15,000; summed schedule variances must equal 70,000 − 90,000 = -20,000. These checks expose duplicated budgets and inconsistent filters.
Assign an investigation owner, agreed response, due date, and next review for each material exception. A proposed recovery plan should identify the affected deliverables and any approval needed for a baseline change.
Bring a sample of your own approved baseline workbook, project cost export, and acceptance register with matching package IDs. Covirage maps the columns; its tools compute and check the supplied cost and progress comparisons, and the external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account, then set up your business and bring your files.
See project cost control for the supporting workflow.
Include the baseline version, status date, approved budget, actual cost, accepted progress, and milestone exceptions. Add a responsible owner and action for each exception. Choose extra measures only when they answer a specific project decision and have an agreed source.
Spending below the full project budget does not establish progress. Work may be late, invoices may be missing, or scope may have changed. Compare actual cost with the budgeted value of completed work, and review that work against the planned position at the same date.
Milestone completion shows whether specific commitments have been accepted. Earned value weights completed work by approved budget. Use both when appropriate: an unweighted milestone count can give a small task the same influence as a major deliverable and obscure the cost position.