NDIS budget calculator: how long will your funding last?
Enter your plan dates, the funding in one budget, and either what has been spent or what is left. The calculator compares how much of the plan has passed with how much of the budget has gone, then shows your plan runway — roughly how long the remaining balance would last at the pace so far. Free, no sign-up to calculate, and it works on a phone.
Method last reviewed against NDIA guidance on .
Plan runway calculator
What plan runway means
Plan runway is how long the funding left in a budget would last at the average pace it has been spent so far. If a budget has $10,000 left and has been spent at about $1,000 a week, the runway is about ten weeks. Comparing that runway with the plan end date is the quickest way to see whether a budget is on track.
Burn rate is the pace itself — the average amount spent per day or per week. A plan can have a healthy balance and still have a burn-rate problem, because the balance only tells you where you are, not how fast you are moving.
Neither figure is set by the NDIA. Both are arithmetic on figures you already hold, which is why the method below is published in full rather than described as a proprietary score.
How we calculate your plan runway
Every figure in the result comes from one of the steps below. There is no weighting, no hidden adjustment and no score. If you want to check the output by hand, or reference the method elsewhere, everything you need is here.
1. Days in the plan
plan end date − plan start date + 1
Both the first and last day of the plan are counted.
2. Plan elapsed
days passed ÷ days in the plan
Today's date is used as the comparison point. It is capped at 100% once the plan ends.
3. Budget used
spend to date ÷ total budget
If you enter a remaining balance instead, spend to date is the total budget minus that balance.
4. Even-pace spend by today
total budget × plan elapsed
What would have been spent by today if the budget were used evenly across the plan.
5. Variance
budget used % − plan elapsed %
Expressed in percentage points of the total budget. Within ±10 points is reported as broadly tracking.
6. Average spend
spend to date ÷ days passed
Shown per week for readability. It is a flat average, not a trend.
7. Projected total spend
average daily spend × days in the plan
The pace to date extended across the whole plan.
8. Plan runway
remaining balance ÷ average daily spend
Only calculated once at least 14 days of the plan have passed and some spending has been recorded. Reported in whole weeks.
9. Sustainable spend from here
remaining balance ÷ days remaining
An even-pace figure for the rest of the plan. It is not a limit set by the NDIA.
Assumptions the calculator makes
- The budget entered is treated as one amount. NDIS plans are funded across support categories, and funding cannot always move between them.
- Spending is assumed to be even across the plan. Real spending is lumpy — equipment, therapy blocks, respite and support worker rosters all move the pace.
- The projection extends the pace to date across the whole plan. It is arithmetic on the figures you entered, not a forecast of future claims.
- Invoices not yet submitted by providers are not visible in a spend-to-date figure, so recent pace can look slower than it is.
- Funding periods can release funding in instalments during a plan. Where they apply, funding available today may be less than the plan total.
- Stated supports are locked to a specific purpose and cannot be redirected to other supports.
Why funding periods change the answer
NDIS plans can release funding in instalments across the plan rather than making the whole plan total available on day one. Those instalments are funding periods. Where they apply, the amount you can actually claim against today may be a portion of the plan total, and unspent funding from one period is generally added to the next period within the same plan.
That matters for a burn-rate calculation in two ways. A whole-of-plan figure can look comfortable while the current funding period is already stretched. And a budget that looks badly underspent across the plan may simply be early in a period that has not released its full amount yet.
If funding periods apply to the plan, run the calculator twice: once on the plan total and plan dates, and once using the current funding period's amount and its start and end dates. The second result is the one that reflects what can be claimed now. The funding periods that apply to a plan are shown in the plan itself and in the myplace participant portal.
What this calculator does not do
- It does not confirm how much funding is available in a plan today — only the NDIA can.
- It does not predict future funding, and it is not a guarantee that a budget will last.
- It does not know how funding is split across Core, Capacity Building and Capital, or which supports are stated and cannot be redirected.
- It does not see invoices that providers have not yet submitted.
- It does not give financial, legal or tax advice, and it is not an NDIA tool.
Where to go next
To understand how the funding itself is structured before calculating pace, read Core, Capacity Building and Capital explained. For what to do about a result, the overspend and underspend guide sets out the signals at each point in a plan. If a provider invoice has stalled rather than a budget running fast, use the NDIS invoice checker or the invoice rejection troubleshooter. Support coordinators working across several plans can browse the support coordinator resource hub, and plan management explains how budgets and invoice activity are reported with us.
NDIS budget calculator questions
Sources
Statements about plan funding, funding periods and plan changes on this page come from the NDIA material below. NDIS guidance changes, so check the current source before relying on any figure.