Skip to content
gr0wpath
Log In

Project budget and time tracking: coded time, earned value and forecasts

For project coordinators, project managers and engineers who run small IT or operations projects with a budget in hours or money and book their time to project codes. Complete 'Project planning: scope, schedule and dependencies' first; 'Project status reporting: honest RAG ratings, variance and escalation' covers how to report the result. This course covers the tracking in between: setting up work packages with time codes and a way to measure progress, checking time entries before they reach the budget report, calculating earned value, cost and schedule variance, CPI and SPI, forecasting the estimate at completion, and handling changes and contingency without hiding overruns. It adapts earned value practice from the US GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide to small projects; that guide is written for government programs and isn't mandatory for commercial work. Your company's time-recording rules, tolerances and change procedure take precedence.

Level
Intermediate
Length
About 100 minutes
Contents
5 lessons · final exam
Status
Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Request a demoMore Operations courses

Skills you'll practise

  • Set up a project budget by work package with time codes and an earned value method for each package
  • Check project time entries for miscoding, missing time and out-of-scope work before they feed the budget report
  • Calculate earned value, cost variance, schedule variance, CPI and SPI from planned, earned and actual figures
  • Forecast the estimate at completion from the cost performance index and decide whether it breaches tolerance
  • Handle scope changes and contingency through change control so overruns stay visible

Course outline

  1. 1.Setting up a project budget by work package with time codes and an earned value methodLesson · 20 min
  2. 2.Checking project time entries for miscoding, missing time and out-of-scope workLesson · 18 min
  3. 3.Calculating earned value, cost variance, schedule variance, CPI and SPILesson · 22 min
  4. 4.Forecasting the estimate at completion from the cost performance indexLesson · 18 min
  5. 5.Handling scope changes and contingency through change control so overruns stay visibleLesson · 14 min
  6. 6.Project budget and time tracking: coded time, earned value and forecasts: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 15 questions
  7. 7.Project budget and time tracking: coded time, earned value and forecasts: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
  8. 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out

Sources it draws on

The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.

See it with your own jobs and topics

Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.

Request a demoLog in