Material Variances

Prerequisites

  • The current reporting period performance data has been imported or calculated. This includes the earned value and actual cost data.
  • To calculate the material price and usage variances, the material actual quantities and unit prices will need to be entered into EVMax. See View the Actual Costs BOM.
  • Material variances are only calculated for work packages where the assumption type is set to "Material" (Work Package tab, Add/Edit tab) and the earned value technique is set to "Quantities" (Work Package tab, Status EVT tab).

You can use the Material Variances tab window to further isolate the root cause of a material cost variance or to identify the main contributor to the cost variance for a work package. Was the actual price for the material more or less than planned (price variance)? Or, was the actual quantity required more or less than planned (usage variance)?

As a reminder:

  • The material price variance is equal to the earned unit price less the actual unit price multiplied by the actual quantity of material used. It is the difference between the earned unit price and the actual unit price. The earned unit price is the same as the budget unit price and is often substituted in the calculation.
  • The material usage variance is equal to the earned quantity less the actual quantity multiplied by the earned unit price. It is the difference between the earned quantity and the actual quantity of material used. The earned unit price is the same as the budget unit price and is often substituted in the calculation.
  • The material cost variance is equal the price variance plus the usage variance.
  1. Select Home > Earned Value in the Navigation Menu. The main EVMax window displays.
  2. Select your project from the Project dropdown in the Ribbon Menu.
  3. Select the Admin tab.

  4. Click on the Variances dropdown in the Ribbon Menu and then select Material. The Variance tab window displays a list of the project's control account WBS elements, work packages, and assigned material resource rows with the calculated price variance and usage variance columns.

    Tips:

    The Variance tab window is a pivot table view. To change the layout, drag a row or column field either from or back to the top of the window. As desired, you can include the data details from the project's BOM.

    You can also apply sorts and filters to the row and column fields - click on the heading field or heading field filter icon.

  5. Optional. Click Show Sources in the Ribbon Menu to display the complete set of data columns so you can compare the actual and earned source data.
  6. Optional. Click Export in the Ribbon Menu to save the view to an Excel file (.xlsx or .xls). You have two options: export as WYSIWYG or Data Aware.
  7. Close the Variance tab.