On a cost-plus contract, unused contingency is returned to the client — they pay actual costs plus the agreed fee, and any contingency not consumed reduces the final cost. On a fixed-price contract, the contractor retains unused contingency as part of project margin — the client pays the agreed fixed price. In both cases, contingency should be visible in the estimate and tracked as a separate cost code throughout the project. Contingency embedded invisibly in line item pricing is not contingency — it is undisclosed markup. On RainFire Builders projects, contingency is labeled explicitly in the estimate and tracked as its own cost code in the job cost system so both parties can see how much is remaining throughout the project.