THE NUMBERS, EXPLAINED
How to use this calculator.
Contingency is a budget allowance chosen by you, not a prediction of final cost.
Start with your inputs
Enter quoted costs (£), contingency (%), budget (£). Keep amounts in the units shown on each field. The example is a starting point, not a recommended value.
| Input | Example value |
|---|---|
| Quoted costs (£) | 5000,3000,2000 |
| Contingency (%) | 15 |
| Budget (£) | 12000 |
A worked example
With the example inputs above, total including reserve (£) is 11,500. Change the inputs to explore your own scenario.
| Result | Example answer |
|---|---|
| Total including reserve (£) | 11,500 |
| Budget remaining (£) | 500 |
How this is calculated
Total including reserve (£)
sum(a) × (1+b ÷ 100)
Budget remaining (£)
c-sum(a) × (1+b ÷ 100)
Symbols and units
- a
- Quoted costs (£)
- b
- Contingency (%)
- c
- Budget (£)
Use the units shown. A list keeps the order in which you enter its values. The symbol ^ means “raised to the power of”.
Calculation steps and notation
sum(list) adds all entries in the list.
Assumptions and limits
Contingency is a budget allowance chosen by you, not a prediction of final cost.
Calculations use the values you enter. Blank or invalid inputs show an error instead of silently substituting zero. Results are displayed to useful precision; calculations retain the underlying numeric precision.
Questions about this tool
What does the result tell me?
Total including reserve (£); Budget remaining (£). The result applies to the method and inputs described above. Check the units and assumptions before using it in a decision.
Why might another calculator differ?
Differences in units, rounding, timing or model definitions can produce different answers. Compare the input definitions and the method, rather than only the final number. For this tool: Contingency is a budget allowance chosen by you, not a prediction of final cost.
Are my inputs stored or sent to AI?
Calculations on this page happen in your browser. The separate AI question finder sends its submitted conversation to OpenAI; these calculator fields are not sent. Favourites and recent tool names are stored locally. A shared link contains the inputs you choose to include.
Review status
Software example and browser checks are recorded in our quality report. No external expert review is claimed. Created with coding assistance; calculations run as ordinary browser code.
Read the quality report →