Make resilience discussable

Downtime cost calculator for UK businesses.

Build a transparent estimate of the revenue, paid time and recovery cost exposed when IT systems, a website, checkout or point of sale stops working. Every assumption stays visible and editable.

Estimate downtime exposure

Editable assumptions

Describe one typical outage.

Illustrative values are loaded to show how the model works. Replace each one with a reasonable figure for your business.

What stops working? This label personalises the printable summary; it does not change the mathematics.

01 Revenue exposure

Potential revenue per trading hour £ Use sales or billable work normally generated in an open hour. Revenue that remains at risk % Reduce this if delayed sales or work are usually recovered later.

02 People and productive time

People affected Only include people whose work is reduced. Employment cost per person/hour £ Salary plus employer costs and relevant overhead. Productivity unavailable % Allow for useful work people can still complete.

03 Duration and recovery

Typical outage duration hours Use decimal hours: 30 minutes is 0.5. Recovery and catch-up cost £ For technical help, overtime or rework per incident. Similar incidents per year incidents Use zero if you only need a single-incident estimate.

Open formula

Every number has a visible reason.

The calculator uses your figures; it does not infer turnover, margins, staffing or incident frequency from your business name or industry.

Revenue per hourRevenue at risk

People affectedHourly employment costProductivity unavailable

Outage hoursRecovery cost

Hourly exposure is the revenue-at-risk component plus the unproductive-paid-time component. Both are multiplied by the outage duration before recovery cost is added.

Use the estimate responsibly

A planning prompt, not a promised loss.

Some revenue returns later

Only count the portion that is genuinely at risk after delayed purchases, rescheduled work and catch-up.

Avoid double counting

Revenue exposure and staff time may describe overlapping consequences. Adjust inputs if adding both overstates the business impact.

Not every impact is priced

The model excludes reputation, customer churn, contractual penalties, safety, regulatory impact and exceptional incidents unless you add a reasonable recovery allowance.

Not professional advice

This is an illustrative planning estimate, not accounting, insurance, legal or financial advice, a quotation, or a guarantee of future costs.

Common questions

Downtime cost calculator FAQ.

How is business downtime cost estimated?

This calculator adds estimated revenue at risk, unproductive paid staff time and recovery costs. It then applies the outage duration and expected annual incident count.

Does every pound of delayed revenue count as a loss?

No. Some sales or work may be recovered later. Enter only the percentage of hourly revenue you reasonably believe remains at risk after catch-up.

Is this downtime estimate financial advice?

No. It is an illustrative planning estimate based entirely on the figures entered and is not accounting, insurance, legal or financial advice.

Turn the estimate into a question

Would sensible resilience cost less?

Compare the exposure with practical options such as monitored IT support, tested backups, resilient connectivity or checkout recovery—not with a promise that every incident can be prevented.

Managed IT supportReduce disruption and shorten recovery time One-off technical helpDiagnose and repair a current issue