Fractional CFO Services in Central Florida
Fractional CFO and controller services for Central Florida construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
I-4 Corridor Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Central Florida-area businesses.
Vessel Advisors supports businesses across the Orlando metro and the I-4 corridor — hospitality operators, construction contractors, healthcare services groups, distributors, and the broader services economy that feeds Central Florida's growth.
Central Florida is one of the fastest-growing operating markets in the country. The finance question for businesses here is rarely about growth itself — it's about whether the financial function can keep up with growth that's already happening.
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
Growth has outpaced the finance function in most Central Florida companies.
Central Florida's economy used to be defined entirely by the theme parks. It still revolves around them — but the businesses that have grown alongside them, and the businesses that have nothing to do with them, are the story now. Hospitality services, food distribution, healthcare, construction, professional services, and logistics have all scaled with the metro.
What we see most:
- Family-owned hospitality, food service, and tourism-adjacent operators that have grown faster than their accounting setups.
- Construction contractors and trades businesses riding the I-4 corridor's sustained build cycle.
- Healthcare services groups consolidating across Florida's growing population base.
- Distribution and logistics operators serving the Florida and Southeast US economy.
- Hispanic-owned businesses scaling regionally across multiple verticals.
Industries
Where we work most in Central Florida.
Hospitality and services
Hotels, restaurant groups, food service operators, attractions-adjacent businesses. Margin discipline, labor economics, and multi-unit reporting are the recurring gaps in family-owned hospitality at scale.
Construction and trades
Commercial contractors, residential builders, and the trades businesses behind Central Florida's sustained population and commercial growth. WIP accounting, job-level profitability, and bonding capacity baseline.
Healthcare services
Multi-site healthcare operators, specialty groups, and the services platforms backing Florida's growing population. Reimbursement complexity, multi-entity consolidation, and PE-readiness are where finance leadership matters most.
Distribution and logistics
Distributors and 3PL operators serving the Florida and broader Southeast US market. Inventory accuracy, customer-level profitability, and working capital efficiency are the recurring conversations.
Central Florida Taxes and Compliance
Central Florida has three sales tax rates. The county of delivery decides which one applies.
Florida levies no personal income tax, so profit that passes through to an owner carries no state tax. A Central Florida company's obligations run through the county surtax, the receipts Orange, Seminole and Osceola require, and the state's employer and construction rules.
Taxes
Sales tax
6.5% Orange, 7.0% Seminole, 7.5% Osceola
Each county adds its surtax to the state's 6%, so a sale delivered in Orlando carries 6.5%. The surtax follows the county of delivery, and a distributor shipping from an Orlando warehouse to a Kissimmee customer charges 7.5%. Surtax rates can change only on January 1.
Business tax receipts
Orange County and Orlando each issue one
Orange County requires its receipt inside its cities too, and in 11 of them, Orlando and Winter Park included, the city receipt comes first. Orlando also requires a Certificate of Use, a separate zoning case paid separately. Every receipt expires September 30.
Income tax
None on owners, 5.5% on C corporations
Profit from S corporations, partnerships and LLCs taxed as partnerships reaches owners free of Florida income tax, so there is no pass-through entity election to weigh. A C corporation pays 5.5% on Florida income above a $50,000 exemption, with no minimum tax.
Bonus depreciation
Bonus depreciation is added back
Florida did not adopt the 100% bonus depreciation in the 2025 federal law. A C corporation adds the bonus back and deducts it over seven years, one-seventh a year, so a year of heavy spending on kitchen equipment, room furnishings or trucks shows more income in Florida than on the federal return.
Commercial rent
Leases untaxed since October 1, 2025
Rent on offices, stores, restaurants and warehouses carries no sales tax for rental periods that begin on or after that date. Rent owed for September 2025 or earlier stays taxable at 2% plus surtax, even when it is paid late.
Employers
Minimum wage
$15.00 an hour, $11.98 for tipped staff
The rate reached $15.00 on September 30, 2026, with a $3.02 tip credit. It holds through December 31, 2027, and inflation adjustments begin January 1, 2028.
Local mandates
No city or county pay rules
Florida bars its cities and counties from setting a private-employer minimum wage or requiring sick leave, and it preempts local predictive-scheduling and heat-exposure rules. A restaurant group with kitchens in Orlando, Sanford and Kissimmee follows one set of state rules.
E-Verify
Required at 25 or more employees
Private employers of that size check every new hire within three business days of the start date. The state allows 30 days to cure a failure, and three failures in 24 months bring a $1,000-a-day fine and can suspend state licenses.
Reemployment tax
2.7% of the first $7,000 per employee
New employers pay 2.7% until their own claims history sets a rate, which takes about two and a half to three years. Experience rates run from 0.1% to 5.4%.
Not required in Florida
No paid leave, disability or retirement mandate
Florida has no paid family leave program and no state disability insurance, and it takes no payroll contribution for either. It also has no state retirement-plan mandate and no law requiring pay ranges in job postings.
Construction
Contractor sales tax
The contractor pays tax on materials
On a lump-sum job the contractor is the final consumer. It pays sales tax and surtax to its suppliers and charges no tax to the customer, even when the invoice itemizes materials.
Mechanics' liens
45 days for a notice to owner, 90 to lien
Subcontractors and suppliers with no contract with the owner serve a notice to owner within 45 days of first furnishing labor or materials. The claim of lien is recorded within 90 days of final furnishing and enforced within one year of recording.
Payment and retainage
19.87% interest on late private payments
Private contracts set the payment date, and late amounts accrue the state judgment rate plus 12%, which is 19.87% for the fourth quarter of 2026. Private retainage has no statutory cap. Public contracts over $200,000 cap it at 5%.
Questions Central Florida owners ask
Do Seminole and Osceola businesses need a city receipt as well as a county one?
It depends on the city. Seminole County charges $25 for a business that needs no state, county or federal license and $45 for one that does; Lake Mary, Casselberry, Sanford and Winter Springs add their own receipt, while Altamonte Springs, Longwood and Oviedo issue a combined one. Osceola County charges $30 a year, and businesses in Kissimmee and St. Cloud need a city license too.
Do hotels and attractions charge the county surtax on the full price?
Yes. The surtax normally applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item, but that cap does not reach admissions or transient rentals. Admission to an Orange County attraction carries 6.5% on the full ticket price, and a hotel stay in Osceola carries 7.5% on the full room charge. Local tourist taxes are separate from sales tax.
How does a restaurant group with several locations file tangible personal property returns?
Each business site files its own Form DR-405 with the county property appraiser by April 1, and each return carries a $25,000 exemption. Once a site's first return shows $25,000 or less, annual filing for it is waived. Late returns cost 5% a month up to 25%, and property left off the return draws a 15% penalty.
Can a Central Florida medical group hold its physicians to a CHOICE Act non-compete?
No. The CHOICE Act allows non-competes of up to four years for employees paid more than twice the annual mean wage of the employer's county, but it excludes licensed health-care practitioners. Their agreements fall under Florida's general statute, which requires a signed writing and a legitimate business interest and presumes six months or less reasonable and more than two years unreasonable. A court must modify a restraint that goes too far.
Which construction trades need a Florida license?
General, building and residential contractors hold Division I licenses. Roofing, plumbing, HVAC, pool and other specialty contractors hold Division II, and electrical contractors answer to a separate board. A certified license is valid anywhere in Florida; a registered license is valid only where the local competency is held. Casual or minor work under $2,500 is exempt unless it is part of a larger job or advertised, and Orange, Seminole and Osceola cannot license trades the state does not, such as painting, flooring and cabinetry.
If I buy a Central Florida business, can I inherit the seller's unpaid sales tax?
Yes. A buyer of more than 50% of a business, its assets or its stock of goods is liable for the seller's unpaid sales tax and reemployment tax, up to the greater of the purchase price or fair market value, net of liens. That liability ends if the seller delivers a Department of Revenue receipt or certificate of compliance and the two share no insiders. See how we work with newly acquired businesses.
What does a Florida LLC owe the state each year?
It files an annual report on Sunbiz between January 1 and May 1 and pays $138.75; a corporation pays $150. A $400 late fee applies after May 1, and an entity that still has not filed by the third Friday of September is administratively dissolved. Florida levies no franchise, net-worth or gross-receipts tax on LLCs or partnerships.
Figures verified October 2026 against the Florida Constitution and Statutes, the Florida Department of Revenue, FloridaCommerce, the Florida Department of State, the Florida Chief Financial Officer, the Orange, Seminole and Osceola county tax collectors and the City of Orlando. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Central Florida Finance Talent
Orlando's 6,190 financial managers work in a metro that added 37,690 people in 2025.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 6,190 financial managers in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro, the category that covers controllers and finance directors. Their median pay is $140,850, about 15% below the national median of $166,570, and the top tenth earns $270,210 or more.
Only nine U.S. metro areas added more people in 2025. The metro's 3,734 business locations with 50 to 499 employees all draw on that same pool. A company that needs CFO judgment can have it without competing for a full-time hire in that market.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford 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 Central Florida.
We support Central Florida companies through our team and bench — on-site time when it matters, virtual delivery when it doesn't.
Coverage area: Orlando, Lakeland, Kissimmee, Sanford, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, and the broader I-4 corridor.
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