The Overall Status is your project traffic light: a single field that tells you at a glance whether everything is on track or whether you need to take action. It combines two questions: Is the project within budget? and Is it on schedule? — and shows the result as Green, Yellow, or Red.

Budget Usage shows you, as a percentage, how much of the planned total hour budget you have already consumed. Imagine you planned a 1,000 km road trip and have covered 464 km — that would be a Budget Usage of 46.4%. The key follow-up question is: have you also completed 46.4% of the journey for that 46.4%? That is what A.4 Progress answers.

Actual Cost shows the personnel costs incurred so far in euros. For each staff member, their number of project hours is multiplied by their individual cost rate — this gives their cost. The sum across all staff members gives the Actual Cost. This is where the Rate per Staff Member billing method comes into play: since every staff member is paid differently, it matters who worked how many hours.

Progress measures the real work progress — not how much time has passed, but how much of the planned work has actually been completed. The Earned Value (EV) is the share of the budget you have "earned" through completed work. Think of it as each completed task granting you its planned hours as a "credit" — that value is the EV.

The advantage over a simple "how much time has passed": if you have consumed 50% of the time but only 30% of the tasks are done, Progress shows an honest 30%.

EAC stands for Estimate at Completion — an intelligent projection: how many hours will the project consume in total by the time it is finished? What makes it special: the forecast is not naive. It accounts for how efficiently the project has been running so far (CPI). If the team has been slightly slower than planned, the forecast is adjusted upward accordingly.

EAC Cost is the projected total personnel cost until project completion in euros. Unlike the hours forecast (A.5), it matters here who completes the remaining work — because staff members have different cost rates. The Rate per Staff Member method ensures an accurate forecast rather than a simplified average calculation.

Billed shows the total amount already invoiced to the client. Not every service delivered is invoiced immediately — many projects bill monthly or at milestones. This KPI helps you see whether invoices are being sent promptly and how large the "gap" between services delivered and invoicing is.

Unbilled is the amount of services that have been delivered but for which no invoice has yet been sent to the client. This money is theoretically earned but not yet collected. A high Unbilled amount means: the company has expenses (salaries, infrastructure), but the payment from the client is still pending.

The Actual Margin is the profit the project has generated so far: the difference between what you can charge the client (revenue) and what the staff members have cost the company (costs). Since the project is still running, this is an interim figure — the outlook for final profitability is provided by D.2 Forecast Margin.

This is where the difference between cost rate and billing rate becomes visible: a staff member with 25 €/h in costs and an 80 €/h billing rate generates 55 € contribution margin per hour.

The Forecast Margin is the projected total margin of the project at completion. It is based on the same forecasts as EAC Cost (A.6): the efficiency of the work done so far (CPI) and the planned staff mix for the remaining tasks feed into the calculation. This makes it the most realistic estimate of the project outcome.

The Budget Margin is the profit you planned for in the original project calculation. It shows how profitable the project should be if all tasks are completed exactly within the planned hours and the intended staff are used. It is the fixed reference baseline for D.1 and D.2.

Δ (Delta) is the Greek symbol for "difference" or "change". Margin Δ answers the question: By how many euros does the projected profit deviate from the planned profit? It is the most important metric for financial controlling — positive means a better result, negative means action is required.