Read the EVM dashboard

Every project has a Finance tab with classic earned value management (EVM): is the project on budget, and is it on schedule? It is visible to people who can see the project’s costs: by default the project’s owner and managers, and organization owners and admins. Regular project members do not see the budget or earned value.

How the Finance tab is laid out

The tab fits its main figures on one screen and keeps the detail one click away:

• The header: the title, the Billable or Internal chip, and a health chip (On track, Slightly behind or At risk). Hover over the health chip, or select it, for the full sentence. The … button at the end of the header holds View in Reports, Manage Rate Cards and Generate EVM Narrative, each shown to the people who can use it.
• The summary strip: one budget bar and six figures. On a project without cost lines the bar is Budget consumed (actual cost against the budget) and the figures are Budget (BAC), Actual cost (AC), Forecast (EAC), Variance (VAC), CPI and SPI. On a project that keeps cost lines, the bar is Budget use (spent, committed and forecast against the budget), and the figures are the cost lines totals, then CPI and SPI. Hover over a figure for its full name and definition.
• A line of facts under the strip: where the cost figures come from, the rate, the date of the calculation, and the cost and schedule variances.
• The sections: a row of section names under the strip. The strip stays in place whichever section is open. See Finance sections.

Finance sections

The detail sits in sections, one at a time. Select a section’s name, or use the arrow keys once one has the focus.

Section	What it holds	When it appears
Overview	The S-curve of planned value against actual cost	Always. The tab opens here the first time you open it on a project
Cost lines	The project’s cost lines: the list, the status filter with subtotals, and the form to add and edit lines	Once cost lines are switched on for your workspace
Earned value	All nine metrics with their definitions, the revenue cards on a billable project and, on a project with cost lines, the Budget consumed bar	Always
Task costs	The per-task cost table, 10 tasks a page	Always
Expenses and revenue	Expense claims and, for people who manage rate cards, Recurring revenue	When your workspace has Onplana Services

Each section has its own link you can share. Open the section and copy the address from your browser: it ends with the section’s short name (overview, costlines, evm, taskcosts or expenses), so the link opens that same section for anyone who can see the project’s costs. The tab also remembers the last section you opened on each project, and a link wins over what it remembers. A link to a section the project does not show, such as Cost lines before they are switched on, opens Overview.

Where the numbers come from

The first item on the line of facts under the summary strip tells you which signal the cost figures are built from:

• Cost figures derived from rate cards: planned cost is each task’s estimated hours times the assignee’s resolved rate, and actual cost is logged timesheet hours times rates. If timesheet approval is enabled for your organization, only approved entries count toward actual cost, and rejected entries never count.
• Cost figures imported from Microsoft Project: when most of the project’s tasks carry cost values from a Microsoft Project import, those imported values are used directly. Tasks without an imported cost still fall back to rate cards.

If the project has neither rate cards nor imported costs, the Overview, Earned value and Task costs sections show an empty state instead of inventing dollar values. Set up rate cards or a default hourly rate and it populates on the next refresh.

The metric cards

The Earned value section shows all nine metrics, each with its definition on the card:

• Budget at Completion: the total approved budget.
• Planned Value: the cost of work scheduled to be done by now.
• Earned Value: the cost-weighted value of work actually completed.
• Actual Cost: money spent to date, from timesheets times rates.
• Cost Performance Index (CPI): earned value divided by actual cost. Above 1.0 means under budget.
• Schedule Performance (SPI): earned value divided by planned value. Above 1.0 means ahead of schedule.
• Est. at Completion, Est. to Complete, and Variance at Completion project the final cost forward from current performance.

The health chip beside the title summarizes both indexes, from the lower of the two: On track at 0.95 and above, Slightly behind between 0.8 and 0.95, and At risk below 0.8.

Tip

If you see the “Project-level estimate” hint, some tasks have no estimated hours, so earned and planned value spread the remaining budget evenly across those tasks. Add estimates to the tasks for precise per-task EVM.

The S-curve

The S-Curve - Planned vs Actual Cost chart, on the Overview section, plots planned value against actual cost from the project start to today. It appears once the project has two or more days of cost history. The two lines should track each other; actual cost climbing above the planned line is the earliest visual sign of an overrun.

The per-task table

On the Task costs section, each task shows its planned cost, Earned Value, Actual Cost, and CPI, with a per-row badge telling you whether the planned cost came from the import, from rate cards, or from the budget-spread fallback.

The table shows 10 tasks a page. On a longer project its footer says which tasks are showing, for example “11 to 20 of 41 tasks”, with Prev and Next to move between pages. The table starts on its first page each time you open the section.

Select a task’s title to open it: the project switches to the Tasks tab, highlights the task, and opens its form.

Open the project in Reports

View in Reports, in the Finance tab’s actions menu (the … button at the end of the header), opens the Report Builder on its Tasks report, filtered to this project. The project’s More actions menu offers more under Report on this: All tasks, Overdue tasks, Waiting for review, In progress, Milestones and Risks, each opening the Report Builder with that filter or source set, plus the AI status report and the schedule dialog.

The address is /reports?project=<project id>, so you can copy it and share it with anyone who can open Reports. Select more projects, clear the project, switch away from Tasks or load a saved report, and the project leaves the address. See Run cross-project reports.

Both menu entries are shown to organization Owners, Admins and Portfolio Managers, the roles that have Reports in the sidebar.

The revenue cards

On a project marked Billable, four extra cards appear in the Earned value section, below the metric cards, once any rate card carries a billable rate or markup: Earned Revenue, Planned Revenue, Revenue Margin, and Realization %. They mirror the cost metrics from the client-billing side. See Split cost and billable rates.

The EVM narrative

Generate EVM Narrative, in the Finance tab’s actions menu, has the Onplana agent write these numbers up in plain language for a PMO audience: overall health, what CPI means in money, the schedule position, the EAC and VAC forecast, and a recommended action. It is written in the background and saved as a draft in the project’s Agent Deliverables (Onplana Agent) folder, with a row in the agent review inbox for a person to approve. See EVM narrative.

Best practices

1. Add estimated hours to EVERY task at project start. EVM math needs effort estimates; tasks without them fall back to a budget-spread approximation that’s less precise. Five minutes upfront beats imprecise reports throughout the project.
2. Read CPI and SPI together, not separately. CPI < 1 and SPI > 1 = “ahead of schedule but overspending” (likely overstaffed). CPI > 1 and SPI < 1 = “underspending but late” (likely understaffed). The combination is the real signal.
3. Use the S-curve as the leading indicator. Actual climbing above planned is the first visible sign of overrun, often before CPI drops below 1. Watch the gap, not just the index.
4. Approve timesheets weekly to keep AC current. If approval is on but slow, Actual Cost lags behind reality. Stale AC = stale EVM. See Approve timesheets.
5. Reconcile EVM against the baseline. EVM measures performance; baseline records “what we agreed to”. The two together answer “did we deliver what we promised?”. See Capture and compare baselines.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• The Overview, Earned value and Task costs sections show an empty state. No rate signal: no rate cards, no default hourly rate, no imported costs. Set up rate cards first. See Configure rate cards.
• CPI > 2.0 looks too good. Three causes: (a) Earned Value calculation is wrong (check task progress); (b) Actual Cost is too low (timesheets unsubmitted/unapproved); (c) wrong rate card resolving.
• S-curve flat for actual cost. Either no hours logged, or hours unapproved. Check timesheet status.
• Project-level estimate hint shown. Some tasks have no estimated hours. EVM falls back to budget-spread for those. Add estimates per task for precise EVM.
• Imported cost badge differs from rate- card badge across tasks. Mixed signal: some tasks imported from MS Project, others on rate cards. Look at the per-task badges; both regimes can coexist on one project.

How this combines with other features

• EVM + Rate cards. Rate cards price the effort; EVM is the math. Without rate cards (or imported costs), EVM has nothing to math. See Configure rate cards.
• EVM + Baseline. EVM compares current performance against the baseline’s “what we agreed to”. The baseline is durable; EVM is live. See Capture and compare baselines.
• EVM + Billable rates. With billable rates set, EVM gets revenue cards (Earned Revenue, Margin) alongside cost. See Split cost and billable rates.
• EVM + Reports. Cross-project Reports can roll up EVM metrics across the portfolio. See Run cross-project reports.

Coming from another tool

Tool	Mapping
Microsoft Project Online EVM	Direct concept; same PMI EVM math
ServiceNow PSA	Direct; same CPI/SPI pattern
Smartsheet Resource Management	Lacks formal EVM; cost-only
Spreadsheet EVM templates	Onplana automates the math
Custom PMO dashboards	Onplana’s EVM is built-in, no custom needed

FAQs

Why does my Finance view say it needs a rate signal? The project has no imported costs and your organization has no rate cards or default hourly rate, so there is nothing honest to price work with. Onplana deliberately leaves the figures empty instead of guessing.

Why did Actual Cost not move when someone logged hours? If timesheet approval is enabled, draft and submitted hours do not count until an approver accepts them. This keeps speculative entries from red-flagging the project.

Who can see the Finance view? People who can see the project’s costs (the View project budget permission): by default project owners and managers, plus organization owners and admins. Anyone else who opens a link to it sees a sentence saying the figures are for people who can see the project’s costs, or, in a workspace with Onplana Services, their own expenses alone (see If your tab says Expenses).

What’s the difference between Planned Value and Budget at Completion? Budget at Completion = total approved cost. Planned Value = cost scheduled to be done by NOW. PV grows over time; BAC is fixed (unless changed via CCB).

How is Earned Value calculated per task? Task progress (0-100%) × planned cost = EV for that task. Project EV = sum across all tasks. Tasks marked Done = 100% EV.

Is there a way to see EVM history over time? Yes. The S-curve on the Overview section plots planned value and actual cost over time, and the EVM history endpoint (or calculate_evm_history via MCP) returns the full time series. The summary strip and the Earned value section show the current state.

Does changing a task’s status to Done flip its EV instantly? Yes, EV recalculates on every task status change. The S-curve shows the most recent values.

Related

• Configure rate cards, what EVM math reads
• Capture and compare baselines, the EVM reference
• Split cost and billable rates, adds revenue cards
• Draft reports, agendas and invites with an agent, the narrative in full