Fractional CFO Services in Columbus
Fractional CFO and controller services for Columbus construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
The Market
Columbus is Ohio's growth engine, and the finance functions are catching up.
Columbus has been the fastest-growing major Midwest metro for most of the past decade. The core drivers are diversified: healthcare through Nationwide Children's, OhioHealth and Mount Carmel; financial services and insurance through Nationwide, Huntington and Root; logistics through Amazon fulfillment and Rickenbacker; the retail HQ base; and — increasingly — the manufacturing supply chain building around Intel's New Albany fab.
The finance-function pattern here is familiar: businesses that scaled through the 2010s never rebuilt the accounting infrastructure they set up when they were smaller. Owners running $20MM to $50MM businesses with month-end closes that take three weeks, forecasts that live in the founder's head, and banking relationships that have quietly limited how fast the business can move on opportunity.
What we see most:
- Manufacturers in the Intel-adjacent supply chain — precision fabrication, subassembly, and specialty industrial — reshaping to meet the semiconductor build-out.
- Healthcare and healthcare-services businesses managing multi-facility financials, payer mix, and provider productivity metrics.
- Financial services, insurance, and fintech operators scaling with the region's broader economic base.
- Logistics and distribution operators serving Rickenbacker and the broader central Ohio hub network.
- Family-owned and founder-led businesses across construction, retail, and specialty consumer preparing for the next generation.
Industries
Where we work most in Columbus and central Ohio.
Manufacturing and industrial
Industrial manufacturers, precision fabrication, and Intel-adjacent supply chain operators. Standard cost discipline, inventory accuracy, and machine-hour rate calibration. Our manufacturing pillar covers the technical detail.
Healthcare and healthcare services
Multi-facility healthcare operators, physician groups, and healthcare-adjacent services. Payer mix analysis, provider productivity, cost-per-visit reporting, and the payer-side reporting infrastructure the finance function has to support.
Financial services and fintech
Fintech operators, insurance-adjacent businesses, and specialty finance. Unit economics by product and channel, regulatory reporting, and the reporting rigor that lenders and investors underwrite against. See our bank credit piece.
Construction and specialty trades
General contractors and specialty trades building through the region's growth cycle. WIP schedule accuracy, over- and under-billings, retention, and the bonding capacity that gates how much work you can carry. See our construction practice.
Logistics and distribution
Freight forwarders, warehouse operators, 3PLs, and consumer distribution networks operating from the central Ohio hub. Customer contribution after freight, terms, and service load. See our distribution cluster.
Professional services and agencies
Engineering firms, IT services, consultancies, and marketing agencies scaling with the region. Utilization, realization rate, and engagement-level profitability — the three numbers most owner-run firms can't see clearly. More on how we serve professional services firms.
Ohio Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Columbus-area businesses.
We staff Columbus engagements with CFOs and Controllers who have run finance functions in the industries that operate here — industrial manufacturing, healthcare, specialty finance, and distribution — and pull from a vetted national bench when scope demands additional depth.
Columbus is one of the fastest-growing business markets in the Midwest, with a diversified base that has kept growing through cycles when other Ohio metros haven't. Intel's fab investment is reshaping the manufacturing supply chain again, and businesses in every adjacent category are recalibrating what their finance function has to be able to do.
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 Columbus.
We serve central Ohio from our vetted national bench of finance leaders who have run operations in the region's core industries. Coverage area: Columbus, Dublin, Westerville, Worthington, New Albany, Grove City, Hilliard, Upper Arlington, and the broader Franklin County and central Ohio region.
Call the team
866-324-4473Ohio Taxes and Compliance
Ohio's 2026 income tax is a flat 2.75%. Business income above $250,000 pays a higher 3%.
A Columbus company owes no corporate income tax, but it owes the Commercial Activity Tax above $6 million of Ohio receipts and the city's 2.5% on net profits, and it collects 8.00% on taxable sales. Columbus employers also face the city's salary-range rule for job postings, enforced from January 1, 2027.
Taxes
Columbus income tax
2.5%, with full credit for tax paid to other cities
Columbus taxes wages earned in the city, residents' income and businesses' net profits, through the City Auditor's Income Tax Division and its CRISP filing portal. Residents get 100% credit for tax paid to other cities, up to 2.5%. Columbus City Schools levies no school income tax in 2026.
Sales tax
8.00% since Franklin County's April 2025 increase
Franklin County's rate rose from 7.50% on April 1, 2025, when the COTA transit levy doubled to 1.0%. Parts of Columbus in Delaware County are also at 8.00%, and parts in Fairfield County at 7.75%. Ohio changes local rates only at the start of a calendar quarter.
Commercial Activity Tax
One $6 million exclusion per group
Ohio's 0.26% tax on gross receipts takes the place of a corporate income tax and reaches LLCs and S corporations too. Combined and consolidated groups count as one taxpayer with one exclusion, applied in full in the first quarter. Returns are due May 10, August 10, November 10 and February 10.
Individual income tax
2.75% above $26,050, down from a 3.125% top rate
The state budget law replaced the 2025 brackets with no tax on nonbusiness income of $26,050 or less and $332 plus 2.75% of the excess above it. Personal exemptions and the joint-filer credit are lost above $500,000 of modified adjusted gross income. No 2027 rate change is scheduled.
Pass-through entity tax
3% at the entity level, by annual election
A partnership, S corporation or LLC taxed as either can elect to pay Ohio tax itself by filing by the April 15 return deadline; a disregarded entity can't. The election binds for that year, and owners add back their share and claim a credit. From 2026, the second and third estimated payments are due June 15 and September 15.
Employers
Salary ranges
Columbus enforces salary ranges in postings from 2027
An ordinance adopted November 3, 2025 requires job postings to include a reasonable salary range or scale, and the city starts enforcing it on January 1, 2027. Under an ordinance adopted in 2023, employers with 15 or more employees in the city already may not ask about salary history. Complaints go to the Community Relations Commission.
Minimum wage
$11.40 an hour from January 1, 2027
Ohio indexes its minimum wage to inflation. The posted 2027 rate is $11.40, or $5.70 for tipped employees, at employers above $420,000 in gross receipts, up from $11.00 and $405,000 in 2026. Columbus can't set a rate of its own.
Unemployment insurance
$9,000 wage base, unchanged since 2020
New employers pay 2.85% on that base in 2026, and new construction employers 5.85%. Experience rates run from 0.4% to 10.1%, and the state's 0.15% technology and customer service fee runs on wages up to $9,000 in 2026 and 2027. Rate notices for the next year are mailed by December 1.
E-Verify
E-Verify for every hire on a nonresidential project
Since March 20, 2026, contractors, subcontractors and labor brokers must verify each employee hired for nonresidential work and keep the records for three years from hire or one year after termination, whichever is later. Residential buildings, manufactured homes and agricultural buildings are excluded. Violators can be barred from state contracts for up to two years.
Final paychecks
No separate deadline for a final paycheck
Departing employees are paid on the regular schedule: wages earned from the 1st to the 15th by the 1st of the next month, and the rest of the month by the 15th. Undisputed wages still unpaid 30 days after the regular payday add liquidated damages of 6% or $200, whichever is greater.
Questions Columbus owners ask
Which city gets the withholding when our employees work across central Ohio?
The city where the work is done, once an employee passes 20 days there in a year. Before that, no withholding is required for that city unless it is the employee's principal place of work, the employee lives there and asks for it, or the job is a construction or temporary site expected to last more than 20 days. A company with less than $500,000 in total revenue withholds only for the city of its fixed location.
Do Columbus-area school districts tax income?
Some suburban districts do, and the tax follows where an employee lives, not where the company is. Columbus City Schools levies none in 2026, but Bexley and Canal Winchester charge 0.75%, Reynoldsburg 0.5% and Pickerington 1%, and Westerville began a 0.75% tax on earned income on January 1, 2026. Employers withhold for each employee's district of residence.
Does Ohio tax software and data services sold to businesses?
Yes. Computer services, automatic data processing and electronic information services bought for use in business are taxable, which takes in B2B SaaS, data and online platforms; sales within an affiliated group are excluded, and the same services bought for personal use are not taxed. Employment and staffing services are no longer on the taxable list. More on how we work with agencies and professional services firms.
How much retainage can an owner hold on an Ohio project?
On private work, Ohio sets no percentage cap, so the contract decides, and the contractor passes final retainage down to subcontractors within 10 days of receiving it. On public projects, since September 30, 2025, progress payments must be at least 96% of approved estimates, which caps retainage at 4% for the whole job, replacing 8% until the job was 50% complete. A subcontractor can't be paid at a lower rate than the public owner pays the contractor, and retainage is released within 30 days of substantial completion, less what is needed to finish.
Does a contractor charge sales tax on an Ohio construction job?
Not on a construction contract that incorporates materials into real property, because Ohio doesn't treat that job as a sale. The contractor is the consumer and pays sales or use tax on its materials, unless they go into property of a government, a church, a charity or certain farm structures. Carpet sale and installation and landscaping never count as construction contracts, and a contractor with more than $6 million of Ohio receipts also owes the CAT. More on how we work with construction companies.
Does a general contractor need a state license in Ohio?
No. The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board licenses only HVAC, refrigeration, electrical, plumbing and hydronics contractors, and Ohio has no state license bond. Each license belongs to an individual qualifier with five years in the trade and can be assigned to a company. Licensees must carry $500,000 of liability insurance that includes completed-operations coverage.
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, the Columbus City Auditor's Income Tax Division and the Columbus City Code. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Columbus Finance Talent
Columbus pays its 5,750 financial managers a median $145,630.
That count, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is for financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors. Their median pay in Columbus is $145,630, 12.6% below the national median of $166,570, and the top tenth earns $267,050 or more. The metro grew faster than Cleveland or Cincinnati in 2025, adding 21,312 residents.
The metro has 3,309 business locations with 50 to 499 employees, all drawing on those 5,750 financial managers. A company that needs CFO judgment can have it without hiring one of them away from another employer.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati MSAs. 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