Fractional CFO Services in Fresno
Fractional CFO and controller services for Fresno construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
The Market
Fresno anchors the Valley, and the finance function has to speak agriculture.
The Fresno metro sits in the heart of one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. Agriculture drives the base — row crops, permanent crops, livestock, specialty produce — along with the food processing, distribution, and equipment businesses that support it. Healthcare through Community Medical, Kaiser and Saint Agnes has grown with the population, and the construction and residential development economy has scaled with the Valley's growth.
The finance-function pattern reflects the agricultural economy: businesses managing commodity exposure, crop-cycle cash flows, and multi-generational family ownership. Cost accounting for permanent crops is different from cost accounting for row crops, which is different again from a packing house or a cold-storage operator. The businesses that get the finance function right navigate cycles the ones that don't struggle through.
What we see most:
- Agricultural operators across row crops, permanent crops, livestock, and specialty produce.
- Food processing, packing, and cold-storage operators serving national supply chains.
- Distribution and warehousing operators along the Highway 99 corridor.
- Healthcare and healthcare-services businesses across the Community and Saint Agnes networks.
- Commercial GCs, residential builders, and specialty trade contractors scaling with the Valley's growth.
- Family-owned businesses across agriculture, distribution, and construction, most of them multi-generational.
Industries
Where we work most in Fresno and the Central Valley.
Agriculture and food processing
Row crop, permanent crop, and specialty produce operators, plus packing, cold-storage, and food processing businesses. Crop-cycle cash management, commodity exposure, and the specific cost accounting agricultural operators need.
Construction and contractors
Commercial GCs, residential builders, and specialty trades scaling with the Valley's growth. 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.
Distribution and warehousing
Distribution operators, warehousing businesses, and 3PLs along the Highway 99 corridor. Customer contribution after freight, terms, and service load. See our distribution cluster.
Healthcare and healthcare services
Multi-facility healthcare operators, physician groups, and healthcare-adjacent services across the Community Medical and Saint Agnes networks. Payer mix, provider productivity, and cost-per-visit reporting.
Manufacturing and specialty industrial
Agricultural equipment, packaging, and specialty industrial manufacturers serving the Valley economy. Standard cost, inventory accuracy, and gross-margin visibility. See our manufacturing pillar.
Family-owned and multi-generational
Multi-generational agriculture, distribution, and construction operators. Governance, succession, inter-company clarity, and the finance function that supports a real ownership transition. See our family-business cluster.
California Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Fresno-area businesses.
We staff Fresno engagements with CFOs and Controllers who have run finance functions in the industries that operate here — agriculture and food processing, corridor distribution, construction, and multi-generational family businesses — and pull from a vetted national bench when scope demands additional depth.
Fresno anchors the Central Valley: one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, with a growing distribution and food-processing economy layered on top of it. The finance functions of businesses here have to handle the specific economics of agriculture — crop cycles, commodity pricing, water rights, and the multi-generational family ownership that defines the region.
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 Fresno.
We serve the Central Valley from our vetted national bench of finance leaders with deep agriculture, food processing, and family-business experience. Coverage area: Fresno, Clovis, Madera, Visalia, Hanford, Selma, Kingsburg, Reedley, and the broader Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings county region.
Call the team
866-324-4473Fresno Taxes and Compliance
Fresno collects most business tax quarterly, in advance. The city's sales tax is 8.35%.
Retail, service and wholesale businesses pay on the prior quarter's gross receipts, with annual caps by class. Packers, processors, distributors, healthcare groups and builders also answer to state rules on business sales, construction payments and payroll.
Taxes
Retail and services
$600 plus $0.93 per $1,000 at the top tier
Retail and service businesses pay a tiered tax on the prior quarter's gross receipts. Above $650K of receipts in a quarter, the tax is $600 plus $0.93 per $1,000.
Wholesale
$458 plus $0.71 per $1,000 above $650K a quarter
Wholesale businesses pay on the same quarterly cycle, on a lower schedule than retail and service businesses.
Contractors
$67 plus $0.50 per $1,000 above $25,000
The rate applies only to gross receipts above the first $25,000. The amounts come from the city's Master Fee Schedule in effect since July 1, 2026.
Sales tax
8.35% in the city of Fresno
The city's 0.375% Clean and Safe Parks tax, in place since July 1, 2021, sits on the 7.25% state base and Fresno County's 0.725% for library, transportation and zoo taxes.
Employers
E-Verify
Checks only after a job offer
A grower or packer can run a new hire through E-Verify once an offer is made, but not current employees, unless federal law requires it. California doesn't mandate the program for private employers, and misuse costs up to $10,000 per violation.
Uncashed paychecks
Unclaimed property after one year
Wages go dormant after one year, against three for most other property. Holders send due-diligence letters for items of $50 or more and file the notice report before November 1, and late reporting carries 12% annual interest, which the Voluntary Compliance Program waives.
Subcontractor wages
A builder answers for its subs' unpaid wages
On private contracts signed in 2026 or later, the direct contractor answers for wages that any subcontractor beneath it leaves unpaid. Penalties and liquidated damages come with that liability unless the contractor monitored sub payroll and acted on problems it knew about.
Health care workers
A higher state minimum for certain health care workers
Certain health care workers are owed a state minimum wage above the general rate of $16.90 an hour, which itself moves to $17.40 on January 1, 2027.
Questions Fresno owners ask
When is Fresno's business tax paid, and what does paying late cost?
Most classes pay quarterly in advance, based on the prior quarter's gross receipts. Late payments draw fees of at least 20%.
Does Fresno cap its business tax?
Yes, by class: $21,200 a year for retail and service businesses, $15,564 for wholesalers, and $6,230 for contractors and for professional firms that pay on receipts.
How do Fresno professional firms pay the city tax?
They choose between two methods. One is $19 a quarter per professional plus 0.3% of gross receipts, capped at $6,230 a year per firm; the other is a flat $388 a year for each professional.
Does California's bulk-sales law apply when a Fresno food processor is sold?
It can. Commercial Code Division 6 still covers sellers whose main business is selling inventory from stock, manufacturers included, with assets of $10,000 to $5,000,000, and notice goes out at least 12 business days before the sale. Those steps don't clear the seller's sales and use tax, which takes its own CDTFA certificate or a holdback from the price. More on getting a business ready to sell.
How long can an owner take to pay a contractor's progress billing?
Thirty days after the contractor's written demand, unless the contract sets other terms in writing. An owner disputing an amount can withhold up to 150% of it, and late payment costs 2% a month plus attorney fees, in place of interest. More on our construction practice.
What is the sales tax outside Fresno city limits?
Unincorporated Fresno County is 7.975%: the 7.25% state base plus the county's 0.725%, without the city's 0.375% parks tax.
Figures verified October 2026 against the California Commercial, Revenue and Taxation, Civil, Labor and Civil Procedure codes, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the State Controller's Office, the Department of Industrial Relations and the City of Fresno. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Fresno Finance Talent
Fresno's 1,370 financial managers serve a metro of 1.20M people.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 1,370 financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors, in the Fresno metro, which takes in Fresno and Madera counties. Median pay is $137,650, about 17% below the national median of $166,570, and the top tenth earns $256,400 or more. Accountants and auditors earn $78,690 at the median.
The metro has 1,090 business locations with 50 to 499 employees. A packer, distributor or healthcare group can bring in CFO judgment without winning a search in a pool that size.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Fresno MSA and national estimates. 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