Project financials

The Finance tab on every project tracks budget, actuals, forecast and EVM.

Budget structure

• Approved budget — the £ amount signed off
• Contract value — what you'll bill the customer (may differ from budget)
• Forecast — current best estimate of total cost at completion (EAC)
• Actuals — what you've actually spent so far

These four numbers should reconcile. Sageon Business flags variances.

Financial tasks (line items)

Add cost lines via Finance → Financial tasks → + New line:

• Description (e.g. "Senior dev × 4 weeks")
• Type — Labour / Materials / Subcontractor / Other
• Budget £
• Actual £ (update as invoices come in)
• Period — month/quarter

Sageon rolls these up automatically.

EVM (Earned Value Management)

Once you have milestones with £ values and actuals against them, Sageon computes:

• PV (Planned Value) — what should be done by now
• EV (Earned Value) — what's actually been delivered
• AC (Actual Cost) — what's been spent
• CPI = EV / AC — cost efficiency
• SPI = EV / PV — schedule efficiency
• EAC — forecast cost at completion

See PMO acronyms for full definitions.

Reading the EVM dashboard

• CPI < 0.9 → over budget for work delivered → escalate
• SPI < 0.9 → behind schedule → re-plan
• Both > 1.0 → ahead and under → great, but check assumptions

Forecasting (EAC)

EAC is recalculated whenever actuals change. The simple formula Sageon uses: EAC = Budget × (1/CPI).

Or ask Sage

"Why is CPI dropping on Customer Portal?"

Sage will read the financial data and explain.

Tips

• Update actuals at least monthly. Stale actuals = useless EVM.
• Don't game EV by inflating milestone values. Milestones should reflect customer-perceived value, not internal effort.