Fractional CFO Services in Atlanta
Fractional CFO and controller services for Atlanta construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
Georgia Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Atlanta-area businesses.
Vessel Advisors supports businesses across the Atlanta metro area and the broader Georgia market — distributors, logistics operators, ecommerce brands, professional service firms, and construction contractors. Our team includes CFOs and Controllers local to Atlanta, backed by a vetted national bench of senior finance leaders who support businesses that need expert help.
Atlanta is the logistics capital of the Southeast and one of the most diversified business markets in the country. The companies we work with here are scaling fast and exposed in different ways than their counterparts elsewhere.
How can we help?
What’s going on in your business and where would you like help?
An Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Company for two consecutive years.
The Market
Atlanta runs on logistics, distribution, and the businesses that serve them.
Hartsfield-Jackson is the busiest passenger airport in the world, but Atlanta's economic engine runs on cargo, distribution, and the supply chain businesses that make the metro a national hub. Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, and Delta anchor the Fortune 500 base — but the operating economy is built around the thousands of mid-market companies serving them and the broader Southeast distribution corridor.
Atlanta is also one of the most diverse business ownership ecosystems in the country, with strong representation among Black-owned companies, women-owned businesses, and second-generation immigrant founders. The finance challenges we see here often involve capital access, banking relationships, and preparing for the institutional scrutiny that follows growth — areas where senior finance leadership matters most.
What we see most:
- Distribution and logistics operators serving the Southeast distribution corridor.
- Ecommerce brands and direct-to-consumer businesses scaling out of Atlanta's logistics infrastructure.
- Construction contractors and specialty trades scaling with the regional growth.
- Professional services firms — IT services, engineering, consulting, fintech — building regionally.
- Family-owned and founder-led operators preparing for institutional capital, sale, or generational transition.
Industries
Where we work most in Georgia.
Distribution and logistics
Regional distributors, 3PLs, warehousing operators, and freight brokers serving the Southeast corridor. Margin visibility by lane and customer, fuel-cost recovery, and inventory discipline are where finance has to step up.
Ecommerce and consumer brands
Direct-to-consumer and B2B ecommerce businesses scaling out of Atlanta's logistics infrastructure. SKU-level margin, channel profitability, return reserves, and inventory accuracy are recurring themes.
Construction and the trades
Commercial general contractors, specialty trades, and infrastructure contractors riding regional growth. WIP accounting, retention, surety relationships, and project-level profitability discipline. Our $110M commercial contractor case study illustrates the work.
Professional and technical services
IT services, engineering, consulting, and fintech firms with utilization-based or recurring-revenue economics. Project profitability, channel and customer mix analysis, and the discipline to scale past founder capacity.
Georgia Taxes and Compliance
Georgia taxes corporate profits and owners' income at the same 4.99%. Atlanta's business tax rose in 2026 and rises again in 2027.
HB 463 set that rate for 2026 and schedules conditional cuts toward 3.99%. Local business taxes differ across the metro, from Atlanta's on gross receipts to Alpharetta's on headcount, and no city or county may impose its own wage or leave mandate.
Taxes
Income tax
4.99% for corporations and individuals in 2026
HB 463, signed in May and retroactive to January 1, cut the individual rate from 5.19%, and a 2024 law ties the corporate and pass-through entity rates to it. From 2027 the rate is scheduled to fall 0.125 point a year to 3.99%, each step delayed a year if the revenue tests checked each December 1 aren't met. HB 463 also repealed the headquarters and port-traffic credits for 2026.
Atlanta business tax
$0.81 to $2.88 per $1,000 of receipts in 2026
Atlanta's occupation tax rates vary by industry class and ran $0.60 to $2.15 in 2025; Ordinance 2025-35 lifts them to $1.01 to $3.61 in 2027. Each location also pays $25 for every employee after the first. Receipts above $400 million go untaxed, a ceiling that was $200 million and reaches $600 million in 2027.
Sales tax
8.9% in the City of Atlanta
The rate is the same in the Fulton and DeKalb parts of the city. Alpharetta, Roswell and Sandy Springs are at 7.75%, and Marietta and the rest of Cobb are at 6%, as is Gwinnett. A seller outside Georgia has to collect once its sales into the state top $100,000 or reach 200 separate retail sales in the current or prior calendar year.
Net worth tax
Up to $5,000 a year, S corporations included
Corporations and LLCs taxed as corporations owe nothing at a net worth of $100,000 or less, and the tax climbs in steps to $5,000 above $22 million; LLCs taxed as partnerships or disregarded owe none. Every for-profit corporation and LLC also files a $60 annual registration with the Secretary of State by April 1.
Pass-through entity tax
An annual election that binds every owner
S corporations and partnerships can pay Georgia tax at the entity level, at 4.99% for 2026, by electing on Form 600S or Form 700 by the original or extended due date. The election can't be revoked after that date, the entity makes estimated payments like a C corporation, and owners subtract their share of the income instead of claiming a credit.
Federal conformity
R&E deductible since 2022, no bonus depreciation
HB 1199 adopts the federal code as of January 1, 2026, for tax years beginning in 2025 and later. Georgia still allows no bonus depreciation and none of the new federal write-off for production property. It has let companies deduct research and experimental costs as incurred, foreign costs included, since 2022.
Employers
Minimum wage
$7.25, with no local minimum
Georgia's $5.15 rate gives way to the federal $7.25 for any job the federal law covers, and tipped employees fall under the federal $2.13 cash wage and $5.12 tip credit. Atlanta, Cobb, Gwinnett and Alpharetta set no minimum of their own, and state law bars local wage and benefit mandates.
Sick leave
No mandate, and no local ordinances
Georgia requires no paid sick leave and preempts local ordinances. An employer with 25 or more employees that already offers sick leave must let employees working 30 or more hours a week use up to five days of it a year to care for an immediate family member. Employers with an ESOP are exempt.
E-Verify
Required at 11 or more employees
Private employers with more than 10 employees must use E-Verify and file an affidavit saying so to get or renew a business license, so the requirement comes up at each renewal. Employers with 10 or fewer file an exemption affidavit instead.
Unemployment insurance
2.70% on the first $9,500 for new employers
The taxable wage base has been $9,500 since 2013. New employers pay 2.70% until they qualify for experience rating, and the Department of Labor mails each employer its rate annually. Quarterly reports and payments are due by the last day of the month after the quarter.
Overtime and tips
A new report on overtime and tips
Georgia doesn't adopt the federal tips and overtime deductions and instead lets employees exclude up to $1,750 of cash tips and up to $1,750 of overtime pay, the overtime only for full-time hourly workers through 2028. Employers report total qualified overtime, total cash tips and the number of employees with their monthly or quarterly withholding returns. The 2026 figures can be reported at year-end.
Childcare credit
$1,000 per child for employer-paid childcare
New for 2026, an employer that pays a childcare facility directly, at least $1,000 per employee a year, can claim $1,000 per child under 6 in the first year and $500 per child after that. It needs preapproval in the Georgia Tax Center, the statewide cap is $20 million, and the credit can't exceed the tax owed or carry forward.
Questions Atlanta owners ask
How does Alpharetta figure its business tax?
By headcount, not receipts. A location with 50 or more full-time equivalents pays $175 plus $17 per employee, smaller locations pay a base of $125 to $475 plus $10 per employee, and each adds a $75 administrative fee. Payment is due by March 31, a 10% penalty starts April 1 and the city refuses renewals submitted after June 1. Atlanta's renewal, by contrast, is filed by February 15 and paid by April 1.
Does Georgia tax the furniture and equipment in a small office in another county?
Not when the total is $20,000 or less. Since January 1, 2025, Georgia exempts all of a business's taxable personal property in a county, other than motor vehicles, trailers and mobile homes, when its total fair market value there is $20,000 or less. The exemption is all or nothing, not a deduction. Returns for property owned on January 1 are filed with the county between January 1 and April 1.
Can a distribution company claim Georgia's research credit?
Yes, if it has qualified research spending in Georgia. Warehousing and distribution is one of seven eligible industries, and the credit is 10% of Georgia qualified research spending above a base amount, provided the company also claims the federal research credit. It offsets up to 50% of the company's net Georgia income tax, and the rest can be applied against Georgia payroll withholding. Credits from tax years beginning in 2025 or later carry forward five years, not ten.
Do Georgia customers pay sales tax on a SaaS subscription?
Not when the software is delivered electronically. Georgia taxes services only when the law lists them, and electronically delivered software isn't a sale of tangible property, a rule that covers SaaS and hosted software. The invoice has to show electronic delivery; otherwise Georgia presumes tangible delivery, and software on physical media is taxable.
Which state license does an Atlanta contractor need?
Residential or general contracting on any job worth more than $2,500 needs one of four licenses: Residential-Basic, Residential-Light Commercial, General Contractor or General Contractor Limited Tier. The Limited Tier carries a $25,000 financial requirement, far less than the full General Contractor license, but caps each contract at $1,000,000. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, low-voltage and utility work need separate licenses. More on our fractional controllers for construction companies.
Does an Atlanta contractor charge sales tax on materials?
No. A contractor improving real property is the consumer of its materials, so it pays sales or use tax when it buys them, charges the owner none and registers with the Department of Revenue before its first job. A contractor from outside Georgia also needs a $10 authorization from the department and a surety bond of 10% of the price on each contract over $10,000.
Does a company with nothing to report still file Georgia's unclaimed property report?
Yes. Georgia requires negative reports and has no business-to-business exemption or minimum amount. Reports and payments are due November 1, and the 2026 report covers property that went dormant between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026. Uncashed paychecks go dormant after one year.
How does a Georgia seller prove its state taxes are paid?
With a Tax Clearance Letter from the Department of Revenue. The seller requests it through the Georgia Tax Center, or another party can with the seller's signed disclosure, and the department reviews all of the seller's tax accounts. Any balance due or delinquent period means the letter is denied. More on preparing a business for sale.
Figures verified October 2026 against acts of the Georgia General Assembly, the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Revenue, the Georgia Department of Labor, the Georgia Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of Labor, the City of Atlanta and the City of Alpharetta. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Atlanta Finance Talent
Atlanta is the sixth-largest U.S. metro, with 15,660 financial managers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 15,660 financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors, in the Atlanta metro. Median pay is $171,240, 2.8% above the $166,570 national median. The top tenth earns $324,540 or more, level with the national figure of $323,270.
The metro added 61,953 residents in 2025, a gain topped only by Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth, and it has 8,507 business locations with 50 to 499 employees. A company that needs CFO judgment can have it without competing with those businesses for a full-time hire.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell MSA. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 and Vintage 2025 population estimates.
How we engage.
When It's Broken
Put out the fire.
Interim CFO & Controller. At the loss of a key employee. When things crash or break. We deploy interim professionals — repairing what's broken and keeping the system running while you decide what's next.
When You're Building & Exiting
Advise and serve.
CFO, Controller & Accounting Team. Right-sized financial leadership — and the team to execute. Embedded for the long run. The CFO Power Team: right roles, right cost.
When You Don't Know What You Don't Know
Assessment services.
Financial Discovery Assessment. A structured deep-dive that reveals where your finance function stands today — and what it needs to support where you're going.
Transaction Readiness Assessment. Will the books and reporting tell the right story to a buyer or investor — and do the systems and processes support merger or acquisition activities?
Coverage
We cover Atlanta.
Our team includes CFOs and Controllers based in Atlanta. We staff engagements with local presence and pull in the vetted national bench when scope requires additional depth. Coverage area: Atlanta, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Roswell, Decatur, and the broader Georgia market.
Call the team
866-324-4473Our Proprietary Diagnostic
The Financial Discovery Assessment shows you what’s working, what’s missing, and the plan to get where the business needs to go.
Every Assessment applies the same structured examination — accounting systems and technology, processes and procedures, team members and team structure, and team-member will-skill — refined across hundreds of engagements in businesses that look like yours.
The output is the Financial Heat Map System: dollarized findings, hidden inefficiencies, and a sequenced plan. It’s presented at the Executive Action Meeting, where your stakeholders review findings and recommendations in non-clinical, non-technical language they can act on.
We’ve walked into hundreds of businesses at the stage yours is in now. We know where to look. We know how to fix what we find.
Prefer to call? 866-324-4473