Establishing Earned Value Reporting in UniPhi

This article explains the end-to-end process for setting up Earned Value (EV) reporting in UniPhi.

It is intended for Project Managers and Project Administrators who are familiar with Earned Value Management concepts, but who may be new to configuring UniPhi for EV reporting.

To generate accurate Earned Value metrics at all levels of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), UniPhi relies on three core data streams:

• A baselined Resource Plan (budgeted effort and cost)

• Actuals captured via Timesheets and Costs

• Milestones capturing progress and Earned Value weightings

  
  

Without all three in place, EV reporting will be incomplete or misleading.

Overview: What UniPhi uses to calculate Earned Value

At a high level, UniPhi calculates Earned Value by combining:

Planned Value (PV)From baselined resource plans and cost budgets

Actual Cost (AC)From approved timesheets and actual cost entries

Earned Value (EV)From milestone progress (% complete) and EV weightings

This data can then be rolled up automatically from task and milestone level, through projects, and up to program and portfolio level reporting.

Phase 1: Foundation Data Setup

1. Set up your Resource Pool

All EV calculations involving labour require resources to exist in UniPhi.

What to do

Navigate to the Resources Module

Add or import project team members

Minimum recommended fields

• Employee Number or Contact ID

• Name

• Email

• Organisation

  
  

Resources can be:

Named individuals, who belong to Generic roles/classifications (e.g. Project Manager, Engineer)

2. Ensure Resources Have Rates

Resource rates are essential for converting planned and actual hours into cost.

Key points

Rates can be maintained:

• At a classification/grade level, or

• Against individual resources

  
  

Multiple rate types can be used if required (e.g. standard, overtime, charge-out)

Without rates, UniPhi cannot calculate:

• Budgeted resource cost

• Actual cost of time booked

• Cost-based EV metrics

Phase 2: Budgeting and Baselining

3. Establish the Resource Plan Budget

The Resource Plan represents the Planned Value (PV) for labour.

What to do

Navigate to Resources → Resource Planning

Enter the planned effort (typically in hours) against:

• WBS elements

• Time periods

• Resources or classifications

  
  

Tips

Resource plans can be:

• Entered manually, or

• Imported using UniPhi’s copy/paste from Excel feature

  
  

UniPhi automatically applies rates to calculate the budgeted cost

4. Snapshot the Original and Approved Resource Plan

Earned Value reporting requires a baseline.

What to do

• Use the Snapshot feature in Resource Planning to:

  • Capture an Original plan

  • Approve an Approved/Baseline plan via workflow (if configured)

    
    

These snapshots:

• Lock the Planned Value

• Allow future comparison against actuals

• Support change control and auditability

5. Establish a Budget for Non-Resource Costs

Earned Value reporting often includes non-labour costs such as:

• Contractors

• Materials

• Equipment

• Travel

  
  

What to do

• Navigate to the Cost and/or Revenue module

• Enter budgeted values against the relevant cost categories

  
  

These values contribute to total Planned Value at project and program level.

6. Create Original and Approved Snapshots for Non-Resource Costs

As with resource plans, cost budgets must be baselined.

What to do

Use cost baselining and snapshot functionality to:

• Capture the original budget

• Approve the baseline budget

  
  

This ensures:

• Accurate EV comparisons

• Reliable cost variance reporting

• Proper change management

  
  

Phase 3: Progress and Earned Value Capture

7. Create Milestones for Progress and EV Weighting

UniPhi uses Milestones to calculate Earned Value progress.

Each milestone can capture:

• % Complete

• Earned Value weighting

  
  

Options for creating milestones

Manual entry

• Time → Milestones

Milestone templates

• Apply a standard milestone structure across the WBS

Integrated schedules

• Import milestones from:

  • Primavera P6

  • Microsoft Project

Best practice

Ensure milestone EV weightings total 100% at the relevant WBS level

Keep milestone progress up to date to ensure accurate EV calculations

Phase 4: Capturing Actuals

Although not a setup step, EV reporting depends on ongoing data capture:

• Timesheets for actual labour effort and cost

• Actual costs recorded in the Cost module

  
  

Without timely and accurate actuals, EV metrics will not reflect true performance.

Phase 5: Earned Value Reporting

Once all data is in place, UniPhi provides several ways to report on Earned Value.

Program-Level Earned Value

Navigate to: Reports → Profitability → Program Earned Value

Provides rolled-up EV metrics across multiple projects

Project-Level Earned Value

Navigate to: Reports → Profitability → Earned Value

Provides detailed EV metrics for an individual project

Metrics typically include:

• Earned Value (EV)

• Actual Cost (AC)

• Cost and Schedule Variances

• CPI and SPI (where configured)

Bespoke and Executive Reporting

For more complex scenarios:

UniPhi integrates directly with Power BI

EV data can be used to build:

• Executive dashboards

• Portfolio-level trend analysis

• Custom KPIs and visuals