Budget at Completion Calculator

What this BAC calculation includes

Earned Value Management integrates project scope, schedule and cost against an approved performance baseline. The U.S. Department of Energy describes Budget at Completion (BAC) as the budgeted value for all work in the project or a defined part of it. At a project-level roll-up, this calculator uses:

computed BAC = allocated performance budget + undistributed budget

Allocated performance budget means budget already assigned to the control accounts, work packages or other approved work represented by your rows. Undistributed budget (UB) is approved budget that has not yet been distributed to those accounts. The same amount must not appear in both places.

Management reserve (MR) is not added to BAC. MR is budget held by management for unplanned work that is within project scope but not part of the performance measurement baseline. The calculator reports BAC + MR only as a wider context total so that the reserve remains visible without being mislabeled as performance budget.

Worked reconciliation example

Suppose a project has three allocated budgets: labor 450,000.00, materials 275,000.00, and subcontracts 125,000.00. The allocated total is 850,000.00. There is also 50,000.00 of undistributed budget and 75,000.00 of management reserve.

computed BAC = 850,000.00 + 50,000.00 = 900,000.00

BAC plus management reserve = 900,000.00 + 75,000.00 = 975,000.00

If a project report says BAC is 925,000.00, the reconciliation delta is defined here as:

reported BAC − computed BAC = 925,000.00 − 900,000.00 = 25,000.00

The positive delta does not explain the cause. It is a prompt to check the reporting boundary, allocation date, undistributed budget and whether reserve was incorrectly included. If reported BAC exactly equals BAC + MR, the calculator calls out management-reserve inclusion as a likely explanation, but the project’s controlled records remain authoritative.

Read the observations, not just the total

The detail table shows every row’s percentage of BAC, plus UB’s share. Duplicate row names can signal accidental double entry. A named row with zero budget may be intentional, but it deserves review. A BAC made entirely from UB can also be valid early in authorization, yet it means no budget has been distributed in this roll-up.

Calculations use integer minor units in the browser rather than binary floating-point addition. That means a USD or EUR cent is summed exactly, and zero-decimal currencies are handled without invented fractions. The aggregate is bounded at 9,000,000,000,000,000 minor units. Number input accepts digits and the active locale’s decimal mark when the selected currency has minor units. Thousands and other grouping separators are not accepted, so enter amounts without digit grouping.

Changing the display currency does not perform foreign-exchange conversion. It changes the label and permitted minor-unit precision only. All source rows, UB, MR and reported BAC must already use the same currency and accounting boundary.

This is an arithmetic and review aid, not an EVMS approval workflow. It does not create a work breakdown structure, authorize budget, manage baseline changes, distinguish contract budget-base components beyond the fields shown, or calculate forecasts such as EAC. Preserve the source report date and follow the change-control rules used by your organization.

Official references: DOE Earned Value Management overview, DOE EVM Tutorial Module 6, DOE training snippet on EAC reasonableness and independent analysis, and the GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide.