Compare budgeted and actual cost to see the variance in dollars and percent, and what it projects to at the current burn.
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Cost variance = budgeted cost - actual cost. A negative number means over budget. Variance percent = CV / budgeted cost. The projection assumes the current spending ratio holds for the rest of the work.
It means you spent more than planned for the work done. Early in a project it can simply be front-loaded purchasing. What matters is whether the ratio is stable or widening, which is why the projection above is more useful than the raw dollar figure.
Formal earned value compares earned value to actual cost, which accounts for how much work is genuinely finished. This simpler version compares planned spend to actual spend. If your percent complete is trustworthy, prefer the earned value version.
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