Fractional CFO Services in Cleveland
Fractional CFO and controller services for Cleveland construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
Northeast Ohio Coverage
Serving Cleveland's industrial mid-market.
Vessel Advisors supports businesses across Cleveland and Northeast Ohio — manufacturers, distributors, healthcare services groups, construction contractors, and the multi-generational industrial families behind one of the deepest manufacturing mid-markets in the country.
Cleveland's mid-market is exactly the kind of business our work fits best: family-owned, multi-generational, operationally complex, and often underserved by national CFO firms focused on coastal startup ecosystems.
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
Cleveland is one of the deepest multi-generational industrial mid-markets in the US.
The narrative about Cleveland often skips the actual story: a deep base of multi-generational manufacturing, distribution, and industrial-services businesses, anchored by a world-class healthcare system (Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals), with a sustained PE and family-office community quietly active across the region. The mid-market families here are the kind that go three and four generations deep, and the conversation is increasingly about institutionalization, succession, and the next chapter.
What we see most:
- Multi-generational manufacturers across industrials, polymers, specialty products, and contract manufacturing.
- Regional distributors and industrial supply businesses serving the broader Midwest and Northeast.
- Healthcare services platforms scaling across Northeast Ohio and beyond.
- Construction contractors and trades businesses across commercial and industrial markets.
- PE-backed platforms running add-on strategies across services, manufacturing, and distribution.
Industries
Where we work most in Cleveland.
Manufacturing
Industrial manufacturers, specialty product makers, polymers, and contract manufacturers across the Northeast Ohio industrial base. Standard cost discipline, gross margin visibility, and operational reporting at multi-plant scale are the recurring gaps.
Distribution and industrial supply
Regional distributors, industrial supply businesses, and B2B distributors serving the broader Midwest and Northeast markets. Inventory accuracy, customer-level profitability, and working-capital efficiency are baseline conversations.
Healthcare services
Multi-site healthcare operators and services platforms across Northeast Ohio. Reimbursement complexity, multi-entity consolidation, and PE-readiness work all come up.
Construction and trades
Commercial contractors, industrial construction, and trades businesses across Northeast Ohio. WIP accounting, job-level profitability, retention tracking, and bonding capacity are recurring conversations.
Ohio Taxes and Compliance
Ohio has no corporate income tax. Cleveland taxes wages and business profits at 2.5%.
The state's Commercial Activity Tax reaches gross receipts above $6 million, and the city's Central Collection Agency collects on wages and net profits. Ohio moved to a flat income tax for 2026 and made E-Verify mandatory on nonresidential construction, and Cleveland now requires salary ranges in job postings at employers with 15 or more employees in the city.
Taxes
Commercial Activity Tax
0.26% of Ohio receipts above $6 million
The CAT stands in for a corporate income tax and reaches LLCs, partnerships and S corporations as well as C corporations. A company at or under $6 million of Ohio receipts files no return, and the minimum tax ended in 2024. Above the exclusion, returns are quarterly.
Cleveland income tax
2.5% on wages earned in the city and on net profits
Cleveland also taxes its residents' income, with credit for tax paid to the city where they work, up to 2.5%. An S corporation or partnership pays on its net profits at the entity level, as if it were a C corporation. Employers withholding more than $200 a month file monthly, by the 15th of the next month.
Sales tax
8.00% in Cleveland
The rate combines the state's 5.75%, Cuyahoga County's 1.25% and 1.00% for transit. Since January 1, 2026, the 0.75% discount a vendor keeps for paying on time is capped at $750 a month per vendor's license.
Owner income tax
3% on business income above $250,000
From 2026, Ohio taxes other income at a flat 2.75% above $26,050, while business income above the $250,000 deduction stays at 3%. The business rate is now the higher of the two. The elective pass-through entity tax is also 3%.
Federal conformity
Five-sixths of bonus depreciation is added back
Senate Bill 9 ties Ohio to the federal code as of March 5, 2026, so the 2025 federal law's expensing of domestic research costs carries into Ohio. Bonus depreciation is decoupled: owners add back five-sixths of it, along with five-sixths of section 179 expensing above the 2002 limit, and deduct the add-back in fifths over the next five years.
Equipment and inventory
0% tax on business personal property
Ohio has assessed business tangible personal property, from machinery to inventory, at 0% since tax year 2009. A manufacturer or distributor files no personal property return and owes nothing on what sits in the plant or the warehouse.
Employers
Salary ranges
Pay ranges in Cleveland job postings since October 27, 2025
Private employers with 15 or more employees in the city must put a salary range or scale in every formal job posting, and may not ask about or screen on pay history. Internal transfers and promotions, rehires with known pay and union positions are exempt. The Fair Employment Wage Board allows a 90-day cure, then fines up to $1,000, or $5,000 after two or more prior violations in five years.
Minimum wage
$11.00 an hour in 2026
The state rate covers employers with more than $405,000 in annual gross receipts, with a $5.50 cash wage for tipped employees. Ohio has posted $11.40 for 2027. State law bars Cleveland from setting a minimum of its own.
Unemployment insurance
2.85% for new employers, 5.85% in construction
Both rates apply to the first $9,000 of each employee's wages, up from 2.7% and 5.6% in 2023 through 2025. A 0.15% technology and customer service fee applies to the same wages in 2026 and 2027.
E-Verify
Required on nonresidential construction since March 20, 2026
Contractors, subcontractors at any tier and labor brokers must run each employee hired for a nonresidential project, from buildings to highways, bridges and utilities, through E-Verify. Fines start at $250 for each failure to use it and $5,000 for each failure to terminate after a final nonconfirmation. Ohio has no E-Verify mandate for other private employers.
Not required in Ohio
No paid sick leave or paid family leave mandate
Ohio has no paid sick leave law for private employers, and since 2017 state law has left sick, vacation and holiday pay to employer policy, beyond the reach of city ordinances. There is no state disability insurance and no paid family leave program.
Questions Cleveland owners ask
How quickly does a general contractor have to pay its subcontractors in Ohio?
Within 10 calendar days of receiving the owner's payment, when the subcontractor's request went in on time to be included in the contractor's own. The rule runs down every tier, and a late payment carries 18% interest a year from day 11. Ohio sets no percentage cap on retainage on private jobs, but the contractor passes final retainage down within 10 days of receiving it, and the rule doesn't cover detached single-, two- and three-family homes. More on our work as a fractional controller for construction companies.
What are the mechanics' lien deadlines in Ohio?
A lien affidavit is due within 75 days after the last work on a commercial project, and within 60 days on a one- or two-family home or a condominium unit. If a notice of commencement has been recorded, subcontractors and suppliers must also serve a notice of furnishing within 21 days after they first furnish work or materials. A late notice keeps the lien only for work done in the 21 days before it was served and afterward.
Can a buyer inherit the seller's unpaid Ohio taxes?
Yes. For sales tax and employer withholding, the buyer holds back enough of the purchase money until the seller produces a Department of Taxation receipt or certificate that no tax is due, and a buyer who doesn't becomes personally liable. A purchase of 75% or more of the seller's assets outside the ordinary course does the same for the CAT, with the buyer liable up to the purchase money. A buyer of the whole business also takes over its unemployment insurance account, experience and liabilities included. See how we work with a newly acquired business.
Does Ohio tax equipment repair and installation?
Yes. Repair and installation of goods is a taxable service, along with building maintenance and janitorial work, exterminating and snow removal. Work under a construction contract, which incorporates materials into real property, is not a sale: the contractor pays sales or use tax on its materials instead of charging tax on the job.
Does Ohio give a tax credit for research?
Ohio's Research and Development Investment Tax Credit is 7% of Ohio qualified research expenses above the average of the prior three years. It offsets the CAT, is nonrefundable and carries forward for seven years. Because it applies only against the CAT, it is worth nothing to a company at or under $6 million of Ohio receipts.
When are Ohio unclaimed funds reports due?
Before November 1, covering property dormant as of the previous June 30. Wages over $50, commissions, payments for services and supplier credits go dormant after one year, and customer credits and refunds after three. The holder notifies owners of items of $50 or more before reporting, and the Division of Unclaimed Funds requires a negative report even in a year with nothing to report.
Can we file one return for all our Ohio city net-profit taxes?
Yes. Any taxpayer other than an individual can elect to have the Ohio Department of Taxation administer all of its municipal net-profit taxes through one return. The election is due by the 15th day of the fourth month of the tax year, April 15 for a calendar-year company, and stays in place until the company ends it by the same date in a later year.
Figures verified October 2026 against the Ohio Revised Code, the Ohio Department of Taxation, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Ohio Department of Commerce, the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, Cleveland's Central Collection Agency and the City of Cleveland Fair Employment Wage Board. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Cleveland Finance Talent
At the 90th percentile, Cleveland pays financial managers $348,520, more than the national $323,270.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 6,300 financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors, in the Cleveland metro. Their median pay is $157,900, 5.2% below the national median of $166,570, so Cleveland's premium sits at the top of the scale, not in the middle.
The Cleveland metro has 3,273 business locations with 50 to 499 employees. A company among them that needs CFO judgment doesn't have to win a full-time search against the rest to get it.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Cleveland, OH MSA and national estimates. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023.
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 Cleveland and Northeast Ohio.
We support Cleveland companies through our team and bench — on-site time when it matters, virtual delivery when it doesn't.
Coverage area: Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Lakewood, Westlake, Strongsville, and the broader Northeast Ohio region.
Nearby coverage: Detroit and Southeast Michigan, Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati and the Tri-State.
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