Once a month, someone in finance asks you the same question about a job you're running: how much more will it cost to finish? That question has a formal name, estimate to complete, and if you've ever wondered what "estimate to complete" is actually asking for, the answer is that plain. It's the cost to complete the job from today to done. Nothing more complicated than that.
Estimate to complete (ETC) is how much money you expect to spend from today until the job is finished. Finance teams also call it your "cost to complete." If you've spent $400,000 on a $700,000 job and you think you need another $340,000 to wrap it up, your ETC is $340,000. That's the number, and it's the only piece of the monthly report that comes from you instead of the accounting system.
Finance abbreviates it as ETC, so that's the last time the jargon matters. From here we'll mostly say "cost to complete," because that's what you actually mean when you're standing on the job. If your finance team wants the formulas behind it, the technical version is here. This guide is for the person who produces the number, not the person who builds the report out of it.
What is estimate to complete (ETC)?
Estimate to complete is the cost of the work that's still left on a job, from where it stands today through the day you hand it over. It is not what you've already spent, and it is not the original budget. It's the money still to go.
Three numbers tell the whole story on any job. There's the original budget (what the job was supposed to cost when you bid it). There's the cost to date (what you've actually spent so far). And there's the cost to complete (what's left). They're different questions, and the last one is what finance keeps asking for.
A quick example. The job was budgeted at $700,000. You've spent $400,000. Walk the remaining scope in your head (the subs still to finish, the material still to order, the labor hours left) and you land on $340,000 to finish. That $340,000 is your cost to complete. Notice it doesn't have to add up to the original budget. If the job ran hot, your honest number will say so.
In construction, that monthly cost-to-complete update is the standard input to the WIP schedule, the work-in-progress report finance puts together each month to show how every active job is doing (Grit Insurance). Your number is the part of that report that has your name on it.
What is the difference between estimate to complete and cost at completion?
Estimate to complete is how much more you need to finish from today. Cost at completion is your spending to date plus your cost to complete: the expected total for the whole job, start to finish. One is the road ahead; the other is the whole trip.
| Term | What it means in plain English |
|---|---|
| Estimate to complete (ETC) | How much more you need to finish the job from today |
| Cost at completion (EAC) | Your spending to date, plus your estimate to complete — the expected final total |
Using the same job: you've spent $400,000 and your cost to complete is $340,000, so the cost at completion is $740,000. Finance cares about both, but they only ask you for the first one — they already know what you've spent. If you want the accounting side of how those two numbers connect, that's the technical version again.
Why does your finance team ask for an ETC every month?
Finance asks every month because your cost to complete is the one piece of the report the accounting system can't produce on its own. Everything else (the contract amount, what's been billed, what's been paid, what's been spent) is already in the system. The number that finishes the job in their math is the one only you can give them.
Here's the split. A WIP schedule needs two kinds of data. The objective part (contract value, costs to date, billings, change orders) lives in the system already; that's the bulk of it. The subjective part is a single number: how much more it will cost to finish. That part has to come from each project manager, because no software knows what you know about how the job is actually going (WIP schedule fundamentals).
Put simply: most of a WIP schedule comes straight from the accounting system; the cost to complete is the only number the system cannot generate. That's why the ask lands on the project manager, every month, on every active job. Procore even has a "Forecast to Complete" field for exactly this, but it's a freeform cell with no workflow and no notes; the number still has to come out of your head (Procore Community).
How do I figure out my cost to complete?
Start from what's left, not from a formula. Walk the remaining scope, in your head or literally across the site, and price it the way you would if you had to finish the job yourself starting tomorrow. It's a judgment call, and that's by design: you're the one who knows the job.
Three things to price out:
- Subcontractor balances still owed — what's left on each sub's contract for work not yet done.
- Labor hours left — your crew, the time to finish, at real rates, not bid rates if the bid rates aren't holding.
- Materials still to order — what's not bought yet, at today's prices.
The trap is anchoring to the original budget for the remaining work. If the job ran hot in the first half, the back half usually does too. A realistic cost to complete reflects the job you actually have, not the job you bid. As one PM put it on a forum about taking over a troubled job, the first move is to "get a realistic cost to complete… so you know exactly where you stand" (r/ConstructionManagers). That's the whole game: a number you'd stand behind, so you know where you are.
Here's the move that protects you: write yourself a one-line note next to the number. Something like "includes $30K contingency for the outstanding sub claim." That note is professional documentation, not a hedge. And if part of your bonus rides on project profit, the number you write down will get re-read months from now — the note is what lets you explain it then, in your own words, instead of reconstructing it from memory. Leaving yourself a paper trail is the right call, every time.
What happens if my estimate to complete changes?
Your number is going to move, and that's exactly what's supposed to happen. Jobs change: labor runs over, material prices jump, you hit conditions nobody saw coming, scope creeps. The reason finance asks every month instead of once a year is that they expect the number to move. Updating it is the professional move. Not updating it is the problem.
If the number jumps a lot from last month, don't paper over it with a round figure that looks tidy. A moved number with a short note explaining why is worth far more than an unchanged one, because it shows you're tracking the job, not coasting on an old estimate. Finance would rather see "$340K, up $40K — sub claim on the curtain wall looks real" than a flat number that quietly stopped being true two months ago.
The most common reason a cost to complete moves at all is a change order. That one gets its own treatment below.
How do change orders affect my cost to complete?
A change order can move your cost to complete two ways: it adds work and money to the contract, and if that work isn't done yet, the cost to finish it flows straight into your number. Adding scope to the contract but not adding the cost to do it is a mistake that makes the job look more profitable than it is.
Two cases come up:
- Approved change order. The work is officially added and funded. If it's not done yet, price the remaining piece and fold it into your cost to complete, the same as any other open scope.
- Pending change order (not yet approved). This is the judgment call. You'll probably do the work, but it isn't signed. Include a realistic cost for what you genuinely expect to do, and use the note field to flag it — "includes pending CO #14, not yet executed." That way the number is honest and the context is on the record.
Change orders deserve a deeper walk-through, and a follow-up post gives them one. For now, the rule holds: when a change order moves the work, it moves your cost to complete too. A one-line note keeps everyone clear on why.
The 2-minute monthly check-in
Strip away the accounting language and the monthly ask is small: one number per job, plus an optional line of context. How much more to finish, and anything worth noting about it. That's the whole task. It fits between site walks — your number ends up on the WIP schedule finance produces each month, but your part of it is the two minutes.
One realistic number, one honest note, done. Two minutes on a job you already know cold, written down before you forget it. Give finance the number you'd stand behind, leave yourself the note, and move on with your day. And if another PM on your team dreads that monthly WIP email, send them this.
Frequently asked questions
What is estimate to complete (ETC)? Estimate to complete is how much money you expect to spend from today until a job is finished: the cost of the work that's still left. It is not what you've already spent and not the original budget. Finance teams also call it your "cost to complete," and it's the one number on the monthly report that has to come from the project manager.
What is the difference between estimate to complete and cost at completion? Estimate to complete is how much more you need to finish from today. Cost at completion is your spending to date plus your estimate to complete — the expected total for the whole job. If you've spent $400,000 and your cost to complete is $340,000, your cost at completion is $740,000.
Why does my finance team ask for an ETC every month? Because your cost to complete is the one piece of the WIP schedule the accounting system can't produce on its own. The contract amount, billings, and costs to date are already in the system. Only the project manager knows how much more it will take to finish — so finance has to ask you for it each month.
How do I figure out my cost to complete? Start from the work that's left and price it realistically: subcontractor balances still owed, labor hours to finish, materials still to order. Don't anchor to the original budget if the job ran hot. Then write a one-line note explaining anything unusual in the number, like a contingency for an open sub claim.
What happens if my estimate to complete changes? That's normal and expected — jobs change, so the number moves. Finance asks monthly precisely because they expect it to. If it jumps, add a short note explaining why; a moved number with context is more useful than an unchanged one that quietly stopped being true.
How do change orders affect my cost to complete? A change order adds work and money to the contract, and if that work isn't done yet, the cost to finish it flows into your cost to complete. For an approved change order, fold the remaining work into your number. For a pending one, include a realistic cost and flag it in the note field.
How WIP Ready helps
The cost to complete lives in your head and your read on the job; no system produces it for you. WIP Ready exists to make handing it over take two minutes instead of a week of finance's follow-up emails: one job per screen, on your phone, no new login, a place for your number and a place for your note. It never calculates the cost to complete for you. That's your call, the way it should be. If you're the one who gets the monthly WIP email, that's the whole story; see how the check-in works at wipready.com.
