Fractional CFO Services in Chattanooga
Fractional CFO and controller services for Chattanooga construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
The Market
Chattanooga is a manufacturing and logistics hub with a fast-growing tech corridor on top of it.
The Chattanooga metro is anchored by Volkswagen's Enterprise South assembly plant and the automotive supplier ecosystem built up around it, plus Nokian Tyres, Wacker Chemie, and a broader manufacturing base across specialty industrial and consumer packaging. The logistics base is significant: I-75 and I-24 intersect in the metro, and freight moves through in every direction. And the region's gig-city fiber infrastructure has fed a growing technology and startup economy that doesn't get the attention it deserves.
The finance-function pattern reflects that mix: manufacturing operators without SKU-level or per-line margin visibility, logistics operators without customer-level contribution analysis, and family-owned businesses across every category approaching ownership transitions. The metro is a quiet mid-market operating economy that most people underestimate, and the finance functions often reflect that same understatement.
What we see most:
- Manufacturers in automotive supply, chemicals, specialty industrial, and consumer packaging.
- Logistics, distribution, and freight operators serving the I-75 and I-24 corridor.
- Technology and specialty tech operators in the gig-city ecosystem.
- Hospitality and destination operators serving the Chattanooga tourism economy.
- General contractors and specialty trade contractors building across the Tennessee Valley.
- Family-owned businesses across manufacturing, distribution, and services, often multi-generational.
Industries
Where we work most in Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley.
Manufacturing and industrial
Automotive suppliers, chemicals, specialty industrial, and consumer packaging manufacturers. Standard cost, inventory accuracy, and gross-margin visibility. See our manufacturing pillar.
Logistics and distribution
Freight forwarders, warehouse operators, and 3PLs serving the I-75 and I-24 corridor. Customer contribution after freight, terms, and service load. See our distribution cluster.
Construction and specialty trades
General contractors, industrial builders, and specialty trades working across the Tennessee Valley. WIP schedule accuracy, over- and under-billings, retention, and the bonding capacity that gates larger work. See our construction practice and how cleaner WIP supports larger bonded work.
Technology and specialty tech
Software operators, specialty tech, and specialty services businesses in the gig-city ecosystem. Unit economics, cohort economics, and the specific reporting that scaling technology companies need.
Hospitality and destination operators
Hotel operators, restaurant groups, and destination hospitality serving the Chattanooga tourism economy. Per-property P&L, prime cost, and the multi-unit reporting hospitality operators need.
Family-owned and closely-held businesses
Multi-generational family operators across manufacturing, distribution, and services. Governance, succession, inter-company clarity, and exit-readiness. See our family-business cluster.
Tennessee Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Chattanooga-area businesses.
We staff Chattanooga engagements with CFOs and Controllers who have run finance functions in the industries that operate here — automotive and chemical manufacturing, corridor logistics, construction, and multi-generational family businesses — and pull from a vetted national bench when scope demands additional depth.
Chattanooga sits at the intersection of I-75 and I-24, one of the most active freight corridors in the eastern US, and hosts the Volkswagen assembly plant and a substantial automotive supplier ecosystem. The finance functions of businesses here have to handle the specific economics of freight, complex manufacturing supply chains, and the family businesses that anchor the metro.
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.
Coverage
We cover Chattanooga.
We serve the Tennessee Valley from our vetted national bench. Coverage area: Chattanooga, Ooltewah, East Ridge, Red Bank, Hixson, Signal Mountain, Cleveland, and the broader Hamilton and Bradley county region.
Call the team
866-324-4473Tennessee Taxes and Compliance
Tennessee taxes gross receipts, and Chattanooga adds its own layer.
Chattanooga businesses pay gross-receipts tax at the state and city level, franchise and excise tax on the entity and 9.25% sales tax. Across the Georgia line, individual income is taxed and sales tax is lower.
Taxes
Business tax
$44 minimum inside Chattanooga
Each layer, state and city, carries a $22 minimum per location, and Chattanooga levies the city layer, as does every Hamilton County city except Ridgeside and Walden. A full return starts at $100,000 of sales in a jurisdiction, and both layers go to the Department of Revenue.
Sales tax
9.25% in Chattanooga
Hamilton County has added 2.25% to Tennessee's 7% since July 1, 2004. Lodging, parking, and repair and installation work are taxable services; professional services are not.
Franchise and excise tax
6.5% excise on LLCs and S corporations
Excise applies after the first $50,000 of Tennessee net earnings, beside a 0.25% franchise tax on net worth. With no individual income tax, Tennessee has no pass-through entity election.
Industrial machinery credit
Worth 1% to 10% of machinery cost
Manufacturers and other eligible taxpayers can apply it against up to 50% of franchise and excise tax and carry the rest forward for 25 years. Rates above the base 1% require large investments.
Bonus depreciation
No Tennessee bonus for production property
The new federal write-off for qualified production property doesn't carry over, and other 2026 purchases get 20% bonus in Tennessee. Tennessee adds back the difference and spreads it over the asset's MACRS life.
Employers
Minimum and tipped wage
$7.25 minimum, $2.13 tipped cash wage
With no state minimum wage law, the federal rates apply, including a tip credit of up to $5.12. Chattanooga can't require private employers to pay more.
Non-competes
New limits from July 1, 2026
Employees paid under $70,000 a year can't be bound by one at all, and above that, courts presume up to two years reasonable. Confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements stay enforceable, and a court may trim a covenant that reaches too far.
Leave
No sick-leave mandate; parental leave at 100
Neither Tennessee nor Chattanooga requires private employers to offer paid sick leave. Parental leave of up to four months, paid or unpaid, is owed only where an employer has 100 or more full-time workers at one job site. Family-leave insurance is an option an employer may buy, not a state program.
Uncashed paychecks
Unclaimed after one year
Uncashed payroll and commissions are presumed abandoned after one year, against three years for most other property. The report is due November 1 for property presumed abandoned by June 30, and a company with nothing to report files nothing.
E-Verify
Required at 35 full-time equivalents
Private employers at that size must check new hires through E-Verify. A 2026 law extended the mandate to state and local government employers from July 1, 2026, and left private employers' rules as they were.
Crossing the state line
Georgia income tax
A flat 4.99% for 2026
Georgia taxes individual income at a flat 4.99% for 2026. Tennessee taxes no individual income, including interest and dividends.
Georgia sales tax
7% in Catoosa County, 8% in Walker
Catoosa County's 7% is Georgia's 4% state rate plus 3% local. Both counties sit below Chattanooga's 9.25%.
Selling into Tennessee
$100,000 of sales into the state
A Georgia seller registers and collects Tennessee sales tax once its retail sales into the state reach $100,000 over the prior 12 months. Sales for resale are left out of the count, and the number of transactions doesn't matter.
Questions Chattanooga owners ask
Is SaaS taxable in Tennessee?
Yes, when the software is used from Tennessee, and it has been since July 1, 2015. A buyer with users in other states can apportion the price, for example under a direct-pay permit. Data processing and data storage remain nontaxable. More on how we work with SaaS and technology companies.
Does Tennessee tax the equipment in a Chattanooga plant every year?
Yes. The Hamilton County assessor mails a personal property schedule by February 1, it is due March 1, and property is assessed at 30% of value. A business that doesn't file gets a forced assessment, while inventory held for sale is left off the schedule.
Does a Chattanooga startup owe franchise and excise tax before it turns a profit?
Franchise tax, yes. It is measured on net worth, with a $100 minimum owed even by an inactive entity, while excise tax falls only on net earnings. A startup with losses owes no excise but still owes at least $100 of franchise tax.
Does Chattanooga's business tax apply to wholesale sales?
Yes, at lower rates. Wholesale sales are taxed at 0.025% to 0.0375% of gross receipts, against 0.1% to 0.1875% at retail. A business located in Chattanooga pays the city layer as well as the state layer.
What does Tennessee require to close a company after a sale?
The Secretary of State requires a tax clearance from the Department of Revenue before an entity can be terminated or withdrawn. A final business tax return is due within 15 days after the sale closes.
Do the retainage rules change on a public project in Chattanooga?
The 5% cap and the 90-day release apply to public and private jobs alike. Government owners are exempt from the $300-a-day damages for retainage that isn't escrowed, the escrow-notice duty and the criminal penalties. On public contracts, a contractor may withdraw retainage by depositing approved securities instead.
Can a Chattanooga general contractor wait to pay subs until the owner pays?
Only if the subcontract says so. A prime contractor pays a subcontractor within 30 days after the sub's timely application, subject to any pay-if-paid clause, and passes along the sub's share of any late-payment interest it receives. Absent a contract rate, late payments accrue interest at 1.5% a month. See our fractional controller work for construction.
What happens to lien deadlines when a Chattanooga owner records a notice of completion?
Subcontractors and suppliers then have 30 days from the recording to serve a written notice of their claim. Without that recording, they serve a notice of lien within 90 days after completion or abandonment.
Figures verified October 2026 against the Tennessee Code, the Tennessee Department of Revenue, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, the Tennessee Department of Treasury, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Georgia Department of Revenue. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Chattanooga Finance Talent
Chattanooga counts 1,280 financial managers across a two-state metro.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics places 1,280 financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors, in the Tennessee and Georgia counties of the Chattanooga metro. Median pay is $151,530, below the $166,570 national median, and the top tenth earns $293,890 or more.
The metro has 764 business locations with 50 to 499 employees drawing on that pool. A business that needs CFO judgment can get it without competing for one of those 1,280 full time.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Chattanooga, TN-GA 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?
Our 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