Fractional CFO Services in Long Beach
Fractional CFO and controller services for Long Beach construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
The Market
Long Beach runs on the port and the aerospace corridor.
The Long Beach and South Bay economy is anchored by the Port of Long Beach — one of the busiest container ports in the world — and the aerospace supply chain that has been in the South Bay since the industry started. Boeing, Northrop, Raytheon, and a long tail of specialty aerospace and defense suppliers concentrate here. Logistics, warehousing, and 3PL operators fill in around the port. Healthcare rounds out the base through the MemorialCare and Long Beach Memorial networks, and the hospitality economy serves both the tourism market and the daily port and business traveler flow.
The finance-function pattern here reflects those industries: aerospace suppliers whose cost accounting doesn't match commercial standards, logistics operators without customer-level margin visibility, and hospitality operators without per-location P&L discipline. Layered on top is a growing base of consumer and DTC brands scaling out of the region, which need a different finance function again.
What we see most:
- Logistics, port operators, warehousing, and 3PLs serving the Port of Long Beach and the LA basin.
- Aerospace and defense suppliers across the South Bay corridor.
- Manufacturers in specialty industrial, consumer packaging, and precision fabrication.
- Healthcare and healthcare-services businesses across the MemorialCare and Long Beach Memorial networks.
- Hospitality, restaurant, and destination operators serving the Long Beach and South Bay economy.
Industries
Where we work most in Long Beach and the South Bay.
Logistics and port operations
Port operators, freight forwarders, warehouse operators, and 3PLs serving the Port of Long Beach. Customer contribution after freight, terms, and service load. See our distribution cluster.
Aerospace and defense
Aerospace suppliers, defense contractors, and specialty aerospace manufacturers across the South Bay. Government contract accounting, cost pools, and the compliance reporting the defense supply chain requires.
Manufacturing and specialty industrial
Specialty industrial, consumer packaging, and precision fabrication manufacturers. Standard cost, inventory accuracy, and gross-margin visibility. See our manufacturing pillar.
Hospitality and destination operators
Restaurant groups, hotel operators, and destination hospitality serving Long Beach and the South Bay. Prime cost, menu engineering, per-location P&L, and the multi-unit reporting hospitality operators need.
California Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Long Beach-area businesses.
We staff Long Beach engagements with CFOs and Controllers who have run finance functions in port logistics, aerospace supply, and multi-unit hospitality — the industries that actually operate here — and pull from a vetted national bench when scope demands additional depth.
Long Beach sits at the intersection of one of the busiest container ports in North America and the South Bay aerospace corridor. The finance functions of businesses here carry the specific economics of freight, complex manufacturing supply chains, and the multi-unit hospitality operators serving 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 Long Beach.
We serve Long Beach and the South Bay from our vetted national bench. Coverage area: Long Beach, San Pedro, Signal Hill, Wilmington, Lakewood, Bellflower, Torrance, Carson, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and the broader South Bay region.
Call the team
866-324-4473Long Beach Taxes and Compliance
Long Beach's sales tax rose to 11.00% on October 1.
The city adds 0.75% to Los Angeles County's 10.25% and charges its license tax by headcount. California taxes S corporations and their owners separately, and its payroll mandates reach every employer.
Taxes
Sales tax
11.00% since October 1, 2026
The rate is Los Angeles County's 10.25% plus 0.75% for the City of Long Beach. It was 10.25% before April 2025 and 10.50% until October 1, 2026.
Business license tax
$488.81 a year plus a fee per employee
For July 2026 through June 2027, the per-employee fee is $12.66 for retail, wholesale and manufacturing, $25.36 for services, construction and recreation, and $38.00 for professionals. Home-based businesses pay a $299.54 base, and the rates rise every July 1.
Who owes sales tax
The tax falls on the seller
California imposes sales tax on the retailer, who may pass it to the buyer when the sale agreement provides for it; showing the tax on the receipt creates that presumption. A restaurant or shop that folds the tax into its prices still owes it, out of those prices.
S corporations
1.5% of net income at the entity level
California taxes an S corporation's net income at 1.5%, with an $800 minimum, and a financial S corporation at 3.5%. Shareholders then pay personal income tax on the same income.
Owner income tax
Up to 13.3% on an owner's taxable income
Individual rates run from 1% to 12.3%, plus 1% on taxable income over $1 million. The 10.3%, 11.3% and 12.3% brackets expire after tax year 2030 unless voters extend them, which Proposition 3 on the November 3, 2026 ballot would do.
Employers
Hotel minimum wage
$26.50 an hour since July 1
Measures N and RW set the wage for Long Beach hotel workers, which rose from $25.00 on July 1, 2026. Measure N also requires paid sick days for hotel workers.
Minimum wage
No general city minimum wage
Long Beach has no general minimum wage, so the state rate applies: $16.90 in 2026 and $17.40 from January 1, 2027. The city says Los Angeles County's higher rate covers only unincorporated areas.
Retirement mandate
CalSavers from the first employee
An employer with one or more California employees and no retirement plan registers with CalSavers and runs payroll deductions, 3% by default into a Roth IRA. Employers with a plan file an exemption, and ignoring a notice costs $250 per eligible employee after 90 days and $500 more after 180.
Paid sick leave
One hour earned for every 30 worked
Every employer provides paid sick leave, usable from the 90th day. Use can be capped at 40 hours or five days a year and accrual at 80 hours or 10 days. Unused leave isn't paid out, but it comes back if the employee is rehired within a year.
Questions Long Beach owners ask
Does California's bulk-sales law apply when a restaurant is sold?
Yes. Commercial Code Division 6 still covers restaurants and sellers whose main business is selling inventory, when the assets are worth $10,000 to $5,000,000. Notice is recorded, published and sent to the county tax collector at least 12 business days before the sale, and on a price of $2,000,000 or less paid substantially in cash, the buyer or escrow pays the seller's creditors from it. Following those steps doesn't satisfy CDTFA's separate successor-liability rule. See how we help owners prepare a business for sale.
Can a buyer inherit a Long Beach company's unpaid payroll taxes?
Yes. A buyer of a business or substantially all its assets withholds enough of the price to cover unpaid unemployment, training tax and SDI contributions until EDD issues a certificate. EDD has 30 days to answer a request, and silence counts as clearance. A buyer who skips the holdback is personally liable up to the purchase price.
Do tips count toward the minimum wage in Long Beach?
No. California allows no tip credit, so a server's or bartender's hourly pay meets the minimum before tips: $16.90 under state law, or $26.50 for workers covered by the city's hotel measures.
How does Long Beach tax a business that rents out commercial space?
Through the business license tax, at $0.038 per square foot of commercial space rented for July 2026 through June 2027, plus the $4 state fee. Like the city's other license rates, it rises every July 1.
Can a company carrying acquisition debt deduct all its interest in California?
California never adopted the federal §163(j) limit on business interest, so interest the federal limit disallows stays deductible on the state return. The state otherwise follows the federal code as it stood on January 1, 2025.
When are California unclaimed property reports due?
California runs two reports. The notice report is due before November 1, covering property as of June 30, and the remittance report and payment follow June 1 to 15 of the next year. Uncashed wages go dormant after one year and most other property after three, and late reporting carries 12% annual interest.
Figures verified October 2026 against the California Constitution, the Revenue and Taxation, Commercial, Civil, Labor, Government, Unemployment Insurance and Civil Procedure codes, the Franchise Tax Board, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the Employment Development Department, the State Controller's Office, CalSavers and the City of Long Beach. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Long Beach Finance Talent
Accountants across the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim metro earn $94,360 at the median.
That Bureau of Labor Statistics figure for accountants and auditors compares with $83,680 nationally. The metro's financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors, sit one step up: 34,480 of them, paid $175,310 at the median against $166,570 nationally.
Of the metro's 411,949 business locations, 17,687 have 50 to 499 employees. A port logistics, aerospace or hospitality company that needs CFO judgment can add it without recruiting a full-time finance executive in that market.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 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?
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