Why does earned value need a period close?

Because CPI and SPI compare three measurements, planned value, earned value and actual cost, and the comparison is only meaningful when all three are measured to the same date. Pay applications, invoices and schedule updates arrive on their own timetables, so without a deliberate cut the earned value from one date is divided by the cost from another and the ratio drifts. The period close pins one as-of date, measures everything to it, and turns the result into a fixed point on the performance timeline.

What date should a period be closed to?

The date a real cost cut exists, which on most projects is the pay-application period end or the month end. That is when the billing for the period has been assembled and the schedule can be statused to the same day. Closing to an arbitrary mid-period date forces estimates on both sides. The as-of date should never be in the future, and it should normally advance one period at a time so the history reads as a clean sequence.

Can a closed period be edited?

A disciplined controls system treats a close as a permanent record. If a figure was wrong, the correction is a new close for the same as-of date that supersedes the earlier one, with both kept, rather than an edit that rewrites history. That is what makes the sequence of closes auditable: anyone can see what was recorded, when, and what replaced it.

Construction Glossary · Earned Value

PeriodClose

Earned value is a comparison, and a comparison is only honest when every side is measured to the same day. The period close is where that day gets fixed.

Definition

A period close is the dated cut at which a project seals its progress and cost to a single as-of date, usually the pay-application period end or month end. Everything earned and spent through that date is fixed as a permanent record, and the earned-value metrics for the period are computed from that record rather than from a feed that keeps moving.

One cut per period, one point on the timeline

Each close seals the period’s earned value and actual cost to its as-of date and leaves a fixed point behind. The sequence of closes is the project’s performance history, and none of it moves after the fact.

What a close fixes

One as-of date

Planned value, earned value and actual cost are all measured to the same day. A close anchored to the pay-app period end is the natural cut, because that is when a real cost cut exists.

Sealed, not edited

A close is a permanent record. A correction is a new close for the same date that supersedes the old one, with both kept, so the history stays auditable.

The record is the input

The period’s CPI, SPI and forecasts are computed from what was sealed, never from a feed that keeps changing after the fact.

A worked example

A $12.0M project closes April to the pay-application period end of April 30. The confirmed earned value through that date is $4.80M and the actual cost through that date is $5.00M, so the sealed April CPI is 4.80 / 5.00 = 0.96. On May 6 a late April invoice for $120K arrives. It does not change the April close; it is cost dated inside April that will be picked up when May is closed to May 31, where the cumulative actual cost becomes $5.12M plus May’s spend. The April point stays 0.96, and the May point shows the effect.

Had April been left open and quietly re-cut, the April CPI would have slid to 0.94 with no record of why, and the timeline would stop being a history and become a rolling guess.

How POD closes a period

On the Current Budget page the act is a single button, “Close period as of {date}.” With every construction line resolved and one as-of date chosen, POD seals the schedule and budget pair as a permanent record, computes CPI, SPI, EV, AC, EAC, ETC, VAC and TCPI from what was sealed, labels the sealed cost by its basis (certified pay application or pending claim), and files a sealed EVM Confirmation report into the project’s library. Only pay applications whose period ends on or before the as-of date count toward the close, so a close dated in the past seals that date’s position, not today’s. The result is the project’s of-record EVM, and every report, KPI tab, morning brief and Ask POD answer reads that one snapshot. A correction is a new close that supersedes the old one; nothing is edited in place.

Earned value without a controls analyst

Frequently asked questions

The cut that makes the history real

A close is only as honest as the record it reads. The next term explains which snapshot counts when several exist.

Of-Record EVM Back to the Glossary