Fractional CFO Services in Los Angeles
Fractional CFO and controller services for Los Angeles construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
The Market
Los Angeles isn't one economy. It's several running in parallel.
The LA basin holds one of the deepest and most diverse business bases in the country. Entertainment and media production drives one slice — studios, post houses, animation, unscripted, VFX. Aerospace and defense drives another — legacy primes and a long tail of specialty machine shops in the South Bay and Antelope Valley. Contractors and specialty trades drive a third, building and retrofitting across one of the most permit-dense metros in the country. Apparel, footwear, and consumer brands drive a fourth, from downtown production to Vernon distribution to DTC brands headquartered on the Westside. Underneath all of it sits one of the largest logistics and distribution ecosystems in North America.
The finance-function gap tends to be the same regardless of industry: the business scaled fast, the finance team scaled slower, and the reporting and controls appropriate for the current size never got installed. Owners running $30MM businesses on the finance infrastructure they had at $8MM is a pattern we see over and over across the region.
What we see most:
- General contractors and specialty trades where the WIP schedule, over- and under-billings, and bonding capacity decide how much work the business can carry.
- Entertainment and media production companies — studios, post houses, unscripted producers — with project-based revenue recognition, complex cost accounting, and residuals or participations to track.
- Aerospace and defense suppliers — machine shops, specialty fabricators, subassembly operators — where inventory accuracy, government contract accounting, and cost pools drive whether the business runs profitably.
- Apparel and consumer brands scaling from wholesale to omnichannel — including DTC operations where blended CAC and blended margin hide the real economics.
- Logistics, distribution, and 3PL operators serving the port and inland corridors — inventory turns, freight-in accuracy, and customer-terms discipline.
- Family-owned businesses across every one of these categories, preparing for the next generation or a first outside transaction.
Industries
Where we work most across the Los Angeles basin.
Construction and specialty trades
General contractors, electrical, mechanical, utility, and specialty trade contractors across the basin. WIP schedule accuracy, over- and under-billings, retention, job costing, and the bonding capacity that determines how much work you can take on. See our construction practice and how cleaner WIP supports larger bonded work.
Entertainment and media production
Studios, production companies, post-production houses, and specialty producers with project-based revenue, complex above-and-below-the-line cost accounting, and multi-party participation tracking. The finance function has to handle both the business you're running and the specific accounting the industry requires.
Aerospace and specialty manufacturing
Machine shops, fabricators, and subassembly operators serving the primes. Standard cost, inventory accuracy, government contract accounting, and machine-hour rate discipline. Our manufacturing pillar covers the technical detail.
Apparel, footwear, and consumer brands
Wholesale, retail, and DTC apparel and consumer operators. SKU-level contribution margin, sell-through analysis, inventory turns, and — for DTC — the cohort economics that most founder-run brands aren't seeing clearly. See our DTC piece on why blended metrics mislead.
Logistics, distribution, and 3PL
Freight forwarders, warehouse operators, 3PLs, and consumer distribution networks. Customer-level contribution after freight, terms, and service load — the gap between top-line and true profitability is often larger than owners realize. See our distribution cluster.
Real estate and property management
Owner-operators, developers, and property management companies running multiple entities across the basin. Inter-company clarity, consolidated visibility across the portfolio, lender covenant reporting, and cash flow forecasting that holds through a development cycle. More on how we serve real estate operators.
California Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Los Angeles-area businesses.
We staff Los Angeles engagements with CFOs and Controllers who have run finance functions in the industries that operate here — construction and the specialty trades, entertainment production, aerospace supply, consumer brands, and distribution — and pull from a vetted national bench when scope demands additional depth.
Los Angeles is a set of overlapping economies, each with its own finance shape. What works in a post-production studio doesn't translate to an aerospace machine shop, and neither of those looks like a general contractor carrying a bonded backlog. The businesses that scale here are the ones whose finance function is built for the actual economics of the industry they're in.
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 Los Angeles.
We serve the entire LA basin from our vetted national bench. Coverage area: Los Angeles proper, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Downtown LA, Pasadena, Burbank, the South Bay, and the broader LA County region. San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, and the Inland Empire are covered here or on their dedicated pages.
Call the team
866-324-4473Los Angeles Taxes and Compliance
Los Angeles taxes a company's gross receipts. Its sales tax reached 10.25% on October 1.
The city's business tax stayed after a repeal initiative was withdrawn in May 2026, and Measure ER added a countywide half-cent in October. California's rules for owners, payroll and construction apply on top.
Taxes
City business tax
$4.25 per $1,000 of receipts for professions
The city taxes gross receipts by class: $3.56 per $1,000 for miscellaneous services, $1.27 for retail and commercial rental, and $1.01 for wholesale and for multimedia and software services. The tax is owed on revenue, profitable or not.
Contractors
$153, then $1.01 per $1,000 above $60,000
Contractors pay $153 on the first $60,000 of gross receipts and $1.01 per $1,000 above that. The tax is filed with the annual renewal, due by the last day of February.
Repeal withdrawn
The business tax stays
A citizen initiative to repeal the tax qualified for the November 3, 2026 ballot. The City Council approved its withdrawal on May 26, 2026, in a deal that slowed hotel and airport wage increases. Businesses with $100,000 or less of worldwide gross receipts still owe nothing if they renew on time.
Sales tax
10.25% after Measure ER
Measure ER added 0.50% countywide on October 1, 2026, on top of five other countywide district taxes of 0.50% each and the 7.25% state base. The city rate was 9.50% before April 2025.
Property transfer tax
Up to 5.95% when company real estate sells
Transfers of City of Los Angeles property closing after June 30, 2026 pay 0.45%, then 4.45% above $5,400,000 and 5.95% at $10,900,000 or more under Measure ULA. Commercial property is included, so a sale or sale-leaseback of the company's building can carry it. The thresholds reset every July 1.
Employers
Minimum wage
$18.42 an hour in the City of Los Angeles
The city rate rose from $17.87 on July 1, 2026 and adjusts every July 1 with the Los Angeles-area CPI-W. The state's $16.90 is the floor statewide.
Paid sick leave
48 hours a year to use in the city
Employees working in the city can use 48 hours of paid sick leave a year, against the state's 40 hours or five days; for long-shift workers the state's five days can be more. The city's 72-hour accrual cap sits below the state's 80-hour floor, so the state cap governs.
State disability insurance
1.3% SDI on every dollar of wages
Employees pay State Disability Insurance, which funds disability and paid family leave benefits, on all wages; the wage ceiling was removed in 2024. Withholding on a high earner's salary no longer stops partway through the year.
City labor ordinances
Fair-chance hiring, retail scheduling and freelancer rules
Los Angeles adds a Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, a Fair Work Week ordinance for retail and protections for freelance workers. Hotels with 60 or more rooms, or 50 in the airport zone, pay their own minimum, now $25.00 plus $4.25 an hour for health benefits.
Unemployment insurance
3.4% on the first $7,000 for new employers
California's unemployment tax applies to the first $7,000 of each employee's wages. New employers pay 3.4% for two to three years, experienced employers 1.5% to 6.2% in 2026, and the employment training tax adds 0.1% on the same wages.
Questions Los Angeles owners ask
How fast do owners and general contractors have to pay on a private California job?
A progress payment is due within 30 days of the contractor's written demand unless the contract says otherwise, and the owner may withhold up to 150% of a disputed amount. A general contractor pays each sub within 7 days of receiving a progress payment, unless they agreed otherwise in writing. Late payments carry a 2% monthly penalty.
What are the lien deadlines on a private job in California?
A preliminary notice goes out within 20 days of first furnishing work; a late notice reaches back only 20 days. A direct contractor records its lien by the earlier of 90 days after completion or 60 days after the owner records a notice of completion; subs and suppliers get 30 days after that notice instead of 60. A suit to foreclose follows within 90 days of recording. See our construction practice.
Will California tax streamed video and music from 2027?
No. Prewritten software, including SaaS, becomes taxable on January 1, 2027, but digital audio, video, books, games and visual works stay outside the new rule, along with digital assets. A studio's software subscriptions are covered; software bought with the right to reproduce or distribute it is exempt.
Does Los Angeles tax receipts from work done outside the city?
A service business can apportion its gross receipts between activity inside and outside the city under City Clerk's Ruling 15. A production, engineering or consulting company with work across the region then pays its class rate on the city share.
How does California's pass-through entity tax work for 2026?
Partnerships and S corporations can elect to pay 9.3% on the qualified net income of consenting owners, through tax year 2030; the election is made each year on a timely filed original return and can't be revoked. The first payment is due June 15: the greater of $1,000 or 50% of the prior year's elective tax. From 2026, a missed or short payment no longer voids the election; it cuts each owner's credit by 12.5% of their share of the unpaid amount.
Do unincorporated Los Angeles County areas have different employer rules?
Yes. The minimum wage there is $18.47 for anyone working two or more hours a week in unincorporated areas. The county's Fair Chance Ordinance reaches employers with five or more employees wherever they are located, and its Fair Workweek rules cover retailers with 300 or more employees worldwide.
Figures verified October 2026 against the California Revenue and Taxation, Labor, Civil and Business and Professions codes, the Franchise Tax Board, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the Employment Development Department, the Los Angeles Office of Finance, the Los Angeles City Clerk, the city's wage standards office and the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Los Angeles Finance Talent
Across the Los Angeles metro, the top tenth of financial managers earns $337,680 or more.
That is the 90th percentile for financial managers, the category that covers controllers and finance directors, in the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim metro; nationally it is $323,270. Its 34,480 financial managers earn $175,310 at the median, a 5.2% premium over the national $166,570.
The metro is the second-largest in the country, with 17,687 business locations with 50 to 499 employees. A studio, aerospace supplier or contractor that needs senior finance judgment can have it without paying the top of that market for a full-time seat.
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 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