Tracking Earned Value and Percent Complete
Earned value — referred to as percent complete in Factor — is a way for project managers to manually assess how much of a phase's work has been completed. This supplements Factor's automatically calculated values and provides a more complete picture of project health.
What Factor Calculates Automatically
Factor automatically tracks two values per phase:
Percentage of budget spent — The value of time logged (based on billing rates) divided by the budget
Percentage of budget invoiced — How much of the budget has actually been invoiced
These values tell you what has already happened, but they don't tell you where the project is headed.
Why Percent Complete Matters
By having project managers update the percentage of work actually completed, you can compare it against the percentage of budget spent:
If you've spent 50% of the budget but 75% of the work is done, you're ahead of schedule or coming in under budget
If only 40% of the work is done but you've spent 50% of the budget, you're running behind and may need to take action
This is especially important for not-to-exceed and fixed fee phases, where overbilling or under-delivery are risks.
Using Percent Complete for Invoicing
Percent complete also serves as a communication tool between project managers and invoice preparers. When project managers update the percent complete, the invoice preparer can see how much should be invoiced for each phase without back-and-forth conversations. The value is displayed on the Fixed Fee tab of the invoice preparer.
Where to Update Percent Complete
Project managers can update percent complete in several places:
Project List — Displayed and editable directly from the list view
PULSE Timelines page — Shows project timelines; the percent-complete value next to each project is an editable link for users with permission to modify project progress, and read-only text otherwise
PULSE Budget tab — Where you review percentage of budget spent alongside percent complete