You will often want to know how much more money you

need to complete a remaining task.

In your personal matters, you can go with a guess, but in
your professional life you must adopt a professional
approach and use proven techniques to reach a
decision.
In project management one such technique is the
Estimate to Complete (ETC), which is another
forecasting technique used along with the estimate at
completion.
This technique gives you an approximate idea of how
much money will be required to complete the remaining
balance of work.
Since this is a very important forecasting technique, I will
explain this topic with three simple examples in three
different scenarios, so you can understand it properly
and then we will move on to mathematical examples.
This topic is very important for the PMP exam. You may
see a few questions from this topic on your exam.
Okay, lets get started.

Example-I
You are constructing your home with a target budget of
100,000 USD. You are halfway to completion, and you
feel that you may have to spend more than what you had
planned. Therefore, you ask your contractor to give you a
fresh estimate for the remaining work.
Your contractor calculates the cost of the remaining work
and tells you that from now it will take 70,000 USD to
finish building your home.
This 70,000 USD is the Estimate to Complete.

Example-II
You are working with a project that is 30% completed,

and 70% remains unfinished.

In this case, the Estimate to Complete is the expected
amount of money to complete this 70% of remaining
work.

Example-III
There is another scenario in which you may want to
calculate the Estimate to Complete.
Suppose that youre building a five story building and,
due to a financial crisis, you cannot complete the project.
Therefore, you decide to cut your building to three stories
from five stories to save some money.
In this case, the Estimate to Complete will help you
calculate your savings.
So the Estimate to Complete (etc) is a forecasting tool in
project management that tells you the expected amount
of money that will be spent to complete the remaining
part of the project.
I hope this concept is clear to you.
However, there is another forecasting tool that is often
confused with the Estimate to Complete. This tool is the
Estimate at Completion (EAC).
There is a difference between Estimate to Complete and
estimate at completion.
Estimate at completion is the total cost of the project at
the end. On the other hand, Estimate to Complete is the
amount of money required to complete the remaining
work from a given date.
Moreover, when the project starts, the EAC is equal to
the ETC. As the project progresses, the ETC starts
decreasing, and at the end of the project it becomes
zero.

How to Calculate the Estimate to

Complete
1
2

There are two methods to calculate the Estimate to

Complete.
Bottom up Cost Estimation
ETC = Estimate at Completion Actual Cost

Case-I: Bottom up Cost Estimation

In this case you go to the activity level, find the cost of
each activity for the remaining work, and add them to get
the total cost of the remaining work.
There is no formula for the bottom up cost estimation
technique.

Example of ETC (Case-I)

You have a project to build a government departments
building for 500,000 USD. To date you have spent
200,000 USD. However, during your project execution
you noticed that your cost estimation was flawed and you
need to re-calculate your budget for the remaining part of
the project.
You sit down with your team members and re-estimate
the cost of the remaining work. Your new estimate says
that it will take 125,000 USD for construction, 75,000
USD for plumbing, 150,000 USD for painting, and 50,000
USD for other expenditures.
Calculate the Estimate to Complete (ETC).
Given in the question:
BAC = 500,000 USD
AC = 200,000 USD
Cost of construction = 125,000 USD
Cost of plumbing = 75,000 USD
Cost of painting = 150,000 USD
Other expenditures = 50,000 USD

Since you are using Bottom up Cost Estimation, you will

calculate the cost of each activity/work-package and then
you will add them to get the final figure.
Hence, Estimate to Completion = Cost of construction +
Cost of plumbing + Cost of painting +
Other expenditures
= 125,000 + 75,000 + 150,000 + 50,000
= 400,000
Hence, the Estimate to Complete is 400,000 USD.

Case-II: ETC = EAC AC

In this case, calculating the Estimate to Complete is very
straightforward. First, you will calculate the estimate at
completion, and then you will subtract the actual cost
spent from it.
Estimate to Complete = Estimate at Completion Actual
Cost
ETC = EAC AC
There are many ways to calculate the EAC. To calculate
the EAC in different cases, you can visit my blog post on
Estimate at Completion.

Example of ETC (Case-II)

You have a project to be completed in 12 months, and
the total cost of the project is 100,000 USD. Six months
have passed and 60,000 USD has been spent, but on
closer review you find that only 40% of the work has
been completed so far. Your project is expected to
perform with the same cost performance.
Find the Estimate to Complete (ETC) for this project.
Given in the question:
Budget at Completion (BAC) = 100,000 USD
Actual Cost (AC) = 60,000 USD
Planned Value (PV) = 50% of 100,000 USD

= 50,000 USD
Earned Value (EV) = 40% of 100,000 USD
= 40,000 USD
To determine ETC first we have to find the EAC.
And, EAC = BAC/CPI
Hence, Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV / AC
= 40,000 / 60,000
= 0.67
Therefore, Cost Performance Index (CPI) = 0.67
Now, Estimate at Completion (EAC) = BAC/CPI
= 100,000/0.67
= 149,253
Estimate at Completion (EAC) = 149,253 USD
Now, Estimate to Complete (ETC) = EAC AC
= 149,253 60,000
= 89,253 USD
Hence the Estimate to Complete (ETC) for this project is
89,253 USD.

Summary
The Estimate to Complete is the anticipated cost that you
will need to complete the remaining part of the project.
This is a forecasting tool and you will use it when the
previous estimate is no longer valid and you need a fresh
estimate for the rest of the work. Tracking ETC gives you
information on the projected cost of the remaining work.
You will use this tool whenever something goes wrong
and the cost baseline deviates. You will use this tool as
quickly as possible and communicate to stakeholders to
get the new budget approved.
This is the end of this blog post on Estimate to Complete.
If you have something to share, you can do so through
the comments section. Now, you can move on to the next

blog post on To Complete Performance Index (TCPI).