Fractional CFO Services in Portland
Fractional CFO and controller services for Portland construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
Portland / SW Washington Coverage
Serving Portland's mid-market.
Vessel Advisors supports businesses across the Portland metro — manufacturers, food and beverage producers, consumer products and outdoor brands, distributors, construction contractors, and the family-owned mid-market behind the Pacific Northwest economy.
Portland has built a distinctive business base — outdoor and sports brands, craft food and beverage, specialty manufacturing, and the timber and forest-products families that have anchored the region for generations.
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
Portland's mid-market is built on brands, products, and multi-generational manufacturing.
Portland is the headquarters of Nike, Columbia Sportswear, adidas North America, and a long list of consumer brands that defined what "made in the Pacific Northwest" means. Around them sits a deep base of contract manufacturers, food and beverage producers, distributors, and the multi-generational timber and forest-products families that built much of the region. Finance leadership here tends to track brand and product economics, supply chain, and the operational discipline that lets a regional brand scale nationally.
What we see most:
- Consumer brands and outdoor/sports products companies scaling beyond the founder team.
- Food and beverage producers — craft beverage, specialty food, contract production.
- Specialty manufacturers serving brands, industrial customers, and consumer markets.
- Distribution and logistics operators serving the Pacific Northwest and Western US.
- Multi-generational timber, forest-products, and rural-industrial businesses across the broader region.
Industries
Where we work most in Portland.
Consumer brands and products
Outdoor, sports, lifestyle, and specialty consumer brands scaling regionally and nationally. Brand-level profitability, channel economics, and capital structure for inventory-heavy growth are recurring conversations.
Food and beverage
Craft beverage operators, specialty food producers, and contract production businesses. SKU-level margin visibility, scaling discipline, and capital structure for production expansion are baseline.
Manufacturing
Specialty manufacturers, contract producers, and industrial suppliers serving brand and industrial customers. Standard cost discipline, gross margin visibility, and customer concentration management are the recurring work.
Distribution and construction
Regional distributors, construction contractors, and trades businesses serving Pacific Northwest growth. WIP accounting, inventory accuracy, and project-level profitability are the recurring questions.
Oregon Taxes and Compliance
Oregon has no sales tax. In Portland, the city, the county and Metro each tax business income.
Oregon taxes gross receipts as well as income, and the local business taxes fall on partnerships and S corporations at the entity level. Employers add a transit payroll tax, Paid Leave Oregon and a retirement mandate at any size, and a Vancouver location brings Washington's sales and gross-receipts taxes.
Taxes
Corporate Activity Tax
0.57% of receipts over $1 million, for every entity type
The tax is $250 plus 0.57% of taxable commercial activity above $1 million: Oregon gross receipts less 35% of the greater of cost inputs or labor costs. It reaches LLCs, S corporations and partnerships as well as C corporations, and a Vancouver company selling into Oregon has nexus at $750,000 of Oregon receipts. Quarterly estimates start when the expected tax is $5,000 or more.
Corporate excise tax
6.6% and 7.6%, with a minimum set by sales
C corporations pay 6.6% on the first $1 million of Oregon taxable income and 7.6% above it. The minimum tax follows Oregon sales, not profit: between $10 million and $25 million of Oregon sales, a corporation owes at least $15,000 even in a loss year, and the minimum reaches $100,000 at $100 million. S corporations pay a flat $150 minimum.
Local business income taxes
2.6% city, 2.0% county, 1% Metro
Portland and Multnomah County tax the business's own net income, partnerships and S corporations included, with only a capped deduction for owner pay. Portland's gross-receipts exemption rises from $50,000 to $75,000 for tax year 2026 and $100,000 from tax year 2027, and one combined return covers both taxes. Metro's regional tax adds 1% across its district in all three counties once gross receipts top $5 million, and its return has no deduction for owner pay.
Personal income tax
9.9% above $125,000 single, $250,000 joint
Profit from an S corporation, partnership or LLC reaches owners at Oregon's individual rates, which run from 4.75% to 9.9%. From 2026, Oregon also taxes the gain on qualified small business stock that federal law excludes. Portland's Arts Tax went from $35 a person to $50 single and $100 joint for 2026, owed by residents with Oregon taxable income over $20,000, or $40,000 joint.
Metro and county income taxes
1% to Metro, up to 3% to Multnomah County
Metro's personal tax applies above $128,000 single or $205,000 joint for tax year 2026, thresholds now indexed to $132,000 and $211,000 for tax year 2027. Multnomah County's Preschool for All tax takes 1.5% above $125,000 single or $200,000 joint and 3% above $250,000 or $400,000, and those thresholds are not indexed. On August 27, 2026, the county board delayed a scheduled 0.8-point increase to January 1, 2028.
Federal conformity
Oregon dropped bonus depreciation for 2026
SB 1507 adds back federal bonus depreciation on property placed in service in tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and the company recovers it through depreciation in later years. Section 179 expensing and the immediate write-off of domestic research costs still follow federal law. Oregon has no general research credit; its only one is for semiconductor companies.
Employers
Minimum wage
$16.80 inside the Portland urban growth boundary
The rate rose from $16.30 on July 1, 2026 and holds through June 30, 2027. Parts of the three counties outside the boundary pay the standard $15.55, and nonurban counties pay $14.55. Oregon allows no tip credit and preempts local minimum wages, so Portland and the three counties use the state tiers.
Payroll taxes
0.8237% TriMet tax, paid by the employer
It applies to wages for work inside the TriMet district and is not withheld from pay. The statewide transit tax stays at 0.1%, withheld from employees, because voters rejected Measure 120, the increase to 0.2%, on May 19, 2026. Unemployment insurance applies to the first $56,700 of each employee's wages, at 2.4% for a new employer.
Paid sick time
Paid at six employees for any employer with a Portland location
Time accrues at one hour per 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, and is usable after 90 days. Without a Portland location, the paid threshold is 10 Oregon employees; below the threshold, sick time is unpaid but protected. Cities and counties can't add sick-leave rules of their own.
Paid Leave Oregon
1% of each employee's wages, capped at $184,500
Employees pay 60% of the contribution, and employers with 25 or more employees pay the other 40%. A smaller employer still withholds and sends in the employee share but pays none of its own, unless it took an assistance grant in the prior two years. The rate held at 1% for 2026.
Retirement savings
A retirement plan or OregonSaves, at any size
An employer that doesn't offer a qualified plan, such as a 401(k), SEP or SIMPLE IRA, has to register for OregonSaves, a Roth IRA program with no employer fees. An employer with a plan certifies an exemption instead. The penalty is $100 per employee, up to $5,000.
Crossing the state line
Washington income tax
Washington leaves wages untaxed through 2027
Long-term capital gains are taxed: 7% above a standard deduction and 9.9% on gains beyond $1 million, with gains on real estate, retirement accounts and depreciable business assets exempt. A 9.9% tax on individual income above $1 million is enacted for tax years from 2028; on November 3, 2026, voters decide whether to repeal it through I-645.
Business and occupation tax
0.484% for manufacturers, up to 2.1% for services
Instead of a corporate income tax, Washington taxes the gross receipts of every entity, pass-throughs included, before any deduction for costs. Manufacturers and wholesalers pay 0.484% and retailers 0.471% until January 1, 2027, when all three move to 0.5%; service businesses pay 1.5%, 1.75% or 2.1%, set by the previous calendar year's service income. A Portland company with more than $100,000 of Washington receipts in the current or prior year has nexus there for B&O and sales tax.
Doing business in Vancouver
8.9% sales tax and a new 0.1% city B&O
Vancouver's combined sales tax rate rose from 8.8% to 8.9% on April 1, 2026, against 0% in Portland, and since October 1, 2025 Washington's sales tax has applied to purchases of IT consulting, custom software, temporary staffing and advertising. From January 1, 2026, the city also taxes retail sales and retail services, construction included, at 0.1%, owed above $50,000 a year. The $17.13 state minimum wage applies in Vancouver, rising to $17.73 in 2027, with no tip credit.
Questions Portland owners ask
When does an owner have to pay a contractor's billing on a private Oregon job?
The owner pays a progress billing within 14 days of receiving it, and the billing is deemed certified after 10 days unless the owner lists disputed items in writing. A general contractor has 7 days after it is paid to pay its subcontractors and suppliers, and late payments at either level carry 1.5% interest a month. Retainage on private work is capped at 5% of the contract price of completed work, the same 5% cap public jobs carry. Low-rise residential buildings fall outside the prompt-payment rules.
How do lien notices and filings work in Oregon?
A notice of right to a lien can go to the owner at any time but protects only labor and materials furnished from 8 business days before delivery, and it isn't required for labor or equipment rental on commercial jobs, though materials-only suppliers still need it. Laborers and suppliers record the lien within 75 days after they stop work or after completion, whichever comes first, and other claimants within 75 days after completion. The foreclosure suit follows within 120 days of recording. A contractor without a Construction Contractors Board license can't lien, arbitrate or sue for payment.
How is a contractor taxed in a state with no sales tax?
An Oregon contractor pays no sales or use tax on materials or contracts. It pays the Corporate Activity Tax on gross receipts along with income or excise tax, and the CAT's 15% exclusion for a general contractor's labor payments to subcontractors on single-family homes expired after tax year 2025. Permits carry their own taxes: Portland's construction excise tax of 1% of improvement value, and Metro's 0.12% on permits over $100,000, capped at $12,000 for projects over $10 million. See how a fractional controller works with construction companies.
Does buying an Oregon business make me liable for the seller's taxes?
Yes, for the Corporate Activity Tax: a buyer who acquires a major part of a seller's materials, inventory, fixtures or equipment in bulk, outside the ordinary course, is liable for the seller's full unpaid CAT. The buyer can withhold part of the price to cover it until the seller shows a receipt from the Department of Revenue, and can give the department written notice of the purchase: if the department doesn't assess the seller within 18 months and send the buyer a copy, the buyer isn't liable. The seller's unemployment tax rate history moves to the buyer too. See how we help newly acquired businesses.
Can my S corporation or partnership still pay Oregon tax at the entity level?
Yes, through tax year 2027. SB 1510 extended the elective pass-through entity tax, which had been set to end after tax year 2025; it charges 9% on the first $250,000 of distributive proceeds and 9.9% above, and owners take a refundable credit. Every member must be an individual, a grantor trust, or a pass-through owned entirely by individuals subject to Oregon income tax, and the election is made each year on Form OR-21 by the return's due date, including extensions, with no late returns accepted. For 2026 only, the first two quarterly estimates both fell due on June 15.
When is a non-compete valid in Oregon?
Oregon voids a non-compete unless the statute's conditions are met. The employee must receive it in writing two weeks before the first day of work or with a bona fide advancement, hold an exempt salaried job and, for a 2026 termination, earn more than $119,541 a year in salary and commissions, and the employer must have a protectable interest. The restriction can last no more than 12 months, and the employer gives the employee a signed copy within 30 days after termination. An employer can also enforce one by paying at least 50% of the employee's salary, or of the indexed threshold, during the restricted period.
How soon is a final paycheck due in Oregon?
An employee who is fired, or who leaves by mutual agreement, is paid by the end of the first business day after termination. One who resigns with at least 48 hours' notice, not counting weekends and holidays, is paid on the last day of work. One who quits without notice is paid by the earlier of five business days or the next regular payday, and late final pay draws penalty wages.
Where do Oregon unclaimed property reports go?
To the State Treasurer, not the Department of State Lands. Holders report after October 1 and no later than November 1, covering property dormant as of June 30. The general dormancy period is three years, and one year for unpaid wages and payroll checks.
Figures verified October 2026 against the Oregon Revised Statutes and 2026 Oregon session laws, the Oregon Department of Revenue, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, the Oregon Employment Department, OregonSaves, the City of Portland, Multnomah County, Metro, the Revised Code of Washington and Washington legislative bill reports, the Washington Department of Revenue, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, the Washington Secretary of State and the City of Vancouver. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Portland Finance Talent
Accountant pay in Portland runs about 10% above the national median, and financial manager pay is level with the nation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 5,550 financial managers in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro, the category that covers controllers and finance directors. Their median pay is $164,680, level with the $166,570 national median, and their 90th percentile is $292,310, against $323,270 nationally. The median for accountants and auditors is $92,200, about 10% above the national $83,680.
The metro has 3,491 business locations with 50 to 499 employees on both sides of the state line, against a pool of 5,550 financial managers. Bringing in CFO judgment doesn't mean winning a full-time search in that market.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA MSA. 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?
Coverage
We cover Portland and the broader Pacific Northwest.
We support Portland companies through our team and bench — on-site time when it matters, virtual delivery when it doesn't.
Coverage area: Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Vancouver WA, and the broader Portland metro and SW Washington.
Nearby coverage: the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle and the Puget Sound.
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