Know your cost variance.
The dollar gap between the value of the work you have done and what you have spent to do it. Three numbers, one answer: favorable or over.
Cost variance (CV) = earned value − actual cost. Earned value is your budget times the percent of work physically complete. The sign is the story:
- Positive CV — favorable, the work done cost less than budgeted.
- Negative CV — unfavorable, an overrun on the work done so far.
- Zero — exactly on budget.
Your numbers
Enter your numbers above
One number today. The trend is what matters.
A single cost variance is a snapshot. POD reads the cost and progress data your team already records and trends cost variance over time, per work package, so you catch the inflection before it becomes an overrun.
CV vs CPI
Cost variance is dollars (EV − AC). CPI is the ratio (EV ÷ AC). One tells you how much, the other how efficiently.
Earned value
Budget times percent physically complete. It is the honest measure of what the work is worth, not hours logged or invoices sent.
Watch the trend
Small early variances recover. A widening negative variance is the signal to act before the finish.
We won't invent numbers you didn't give us.
Trend cost variance on your own project.
POD turns the reports you already produce into live cost performance, per work package. As complete as your data.
Last updated: July 2026