Retainer Health & Scope Creep Calculator
Is that retainer running hot? Compare burn to the month elapsed, project where the hours land, and put a £ figure on the creep — with the working shown, so the scope conversation starts from numbers.
The working — copy it into the client email
Tracking one retainer is easy. You've got nine.
Get the free Retainer Health Tracker (Excel) — every retainer on one sheet, running the same maths as this calculator:
- Allowance, used, burn and pace delta per client — RAG-lit at a glance
- Month-end projection and the £ value of any overage, per retainer and portfolio-wide
- One “today” date drives every row — update it and the whole book re-paces
Catch the creep before the invoice does
Built by people who run retainers — the point isn't the burn number, it's whether the burn is outrunning the calendar.
Pace, not panic
85% burned sounds alarming — unless 85% of the month has gone too. The verdict compares burn to the calendar, so you react to real drift, not big numbers.
Month-end projection
Straight-line pace shows where the month actually lands — the hours you'll hit if this fortnight's rhythm holds to the last day.
Overage, priced
“Hours over” is abstract; £1,163 of unbilled work is not. Put a value on the creep before you decide whether to absorb it.
The working, shown
Every answer comes with the step-by-step maths — paste it into the client email so the scope conversation starts from agreed numbers.
Retainer health — questions
Scope creep is work quietly expanding beyond what the retainer covers — extra requests, “quick” additions and unticketed favours that burn hours without anyone re-agreeing scope or price. On a retainer it shows up as a burn rate that consistently outruns the month: if 85% of the hours are gone with 40% of the month left, the scope has crept. Left unchecked, it turns a profitable retainer into free work.
One that tracks the calendar. If 60% of the month has elapsed, roughly 60% of the hours should be used — give or take 10 points either way. Consistently hotter than that and you're heading for unpaid overage; consistently colder (25+ points under) and the client isn't getting the value they're paying for, which is how retainers quietly get cancelled.
Early, with the numbers — never at invoice time. A surprise line item breeds distrust; a mid-month heads-up reads as good management. Show the maths this calculator gives you (“we're at 34 of 40 hours with 11 days left — on this pace that's 14 hours over”), then offer choices: re-prioritise what's left, roll the extra into next month, park it, or agree the overage at your rate. Clients rarely mind paying for work they chose; they mind being billed for work they didn't know about.
Straight-line pace: hours used divided by the fraction of the month elapsed. 34 hours used by day 19 of a 30-day month is 34 ÷ 63.3% ≈ 54 hours by month end. It assumes the current pace holds — a launch week or a quiet fortnight will move it, which is exactly why it's worth re-checking each week.
We make Landing — the all-in-one platform where retainers, time tracking and client reporting live together. A genuinely useful free calculator is the best introduction we know; the answer is yours either way. No payment, no trial, no strings.
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Meet Landing — retainers that track themselves
A calculator answers today's question — but you only asked it because the hours live in one tool and the retainer in another. In Landing, logged time burns the retainer allowance live: the health pill goes amber before the month blows, overage is visible mid-month, and the scope conversation happens while it's still cheap. One platform, 40+ connected tools, for agencies, teams and growing businesses.
See Landing in action →The projection is a straight-line estimate that assumes the current pace holds — it's a management signal, not an invoice. Contract terms on rollover, overage rates and notice periods always take precedence.