Fractional CFO Services in Richmond
Fractional CFO and controller services for Richmond construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
The Market
Richmond is a mid-market metro with a deep, quiet operating economy.
The Richmond economy is anchored by financial services through Capital One, Genworth, Markel and a substantial insurance and reinsurance base; healthcare through HCA Virginia, VCU Health and Bon Secours; and — increasingly — data centers, defense contractors, and specialty manufacturers along the I-95 and I-64 corridors. It's a metro that punches well above its weight for mid-market companies without being loud about it.
The finance-function pattern here is generational: businesses built through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s that are now approaching an ownership transition — sale to a strategic, sale to PE, generational transfer, ESOP conversion. The reporting infrastructure that got the business here isn't the reporting infrastructure a buyer or an ESOP trustee will underwrite against. Making that transition cleanly is what a strong finance function enables.
What we see most:
- Financial services, insurance, and specialty finance operators.
- Healthcare and healthcare-services businesses with multi-facility central Virginia footprints.
- Manufacturers and specialty industrial operators serving the I-95 and I-64 corridors.
- Defense and government-services contractors adjacent to the DC and Norfolk hubs.
- General contractors and specialty trades building through the metro's steady growth.
- Family-owned and closely-held businesses approaching ownership transitions after decades of steady growth.
Industries
Where we work most in Richmond and central Virginia.
Financial services and insurance
Insurance operators, specialty finance, and financial-services back offices. Unit economics, regulatory reporting, and the reporting rigor that regulators, lenders, and investors underwrite against.
Healthcare and healthcare services
Multi-facility healthcare operators, physician groups, and healthcare-adjacent services. Payer mix, provider productivity, and the reporting infrastructure the payer side requires.
Manufacturing and specialty industrial
Industrial manufacturers, specialty fabricators, and process operators. Standard cost, inventory accuracy, and gross-margin visibility. See our manufacturing pillar.
Construction and specialty trades
General contractors and specialty trades working across the Richmond metro. WIP schedule accuracy, over- and under-billings, retention, and the bonding capacity that gates how much work you can carry. See our construction practice and how cleaner WIP supports larger bonded work.
Family-owned and closely-held businesses
Multi-generational family operators across manufacturing, distribution, and services approaching an ownership transition. Governance, succession, inter-company clarity, and exit-readiness — the finance function that makes the transition clean.
Professional services and agencies
Engineering firms, IT services, consultancies, and marketing agencies across central Virginia. Utilization, realization rate, and engagement-level profitability. More on how we serve professional services firms.
Virginia Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for Richmond-area businesses.
We staff Richmond engagements with CFOs and Controllers who have run finance functions in the industries that operate here — insurance and specialty finance, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, and government-adjacent services — and pull from a vetted national bench when scope demands additional depth.
Richmond is a quiet mid-market powerhouse: a state capital and financial services base with a diversified operating economy underneath it. The metro's finance-function profile skews toward businesses that scaled steadily over decades and are now approaching a generational or ownership transition without the infrastructure to make it a clean one.
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 Richmond.
We serve central Virginia from our vetted national bench. Coverage area: Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield, Short Pump, Midlothian, Glen Allen, Mechanicsville, and the broader Richmond metro and central Virginia region.
Call the team
866-324-4473Virginia Taxes and Compliance
Virginia rewrote its employment law in 2026. Richmond's license tax still runs on gross receipts.
Virginia's income tax rates didn't change in 2025 or 2026. Its federal conformity, Richmond's license-tax threshold and the rules for employers of every size did, and more of them take effect through 2029.
Taxes
BPOL, City of Richmond
$500,000 threshold from 2026
Richmond's Business, Professional and Occupational License tax is charged on gross receipts, not profit. Receipts from $5,001 to $500,000 pay a flat $30; above $500,000 every dollar is taxed, at $0.58 per $100 for professional services. The threshold was $250,000 until 2026, and the tax is due March 1.
BPOL, Henrico and Chesterfield
No Henrico tax under $1,000,000 in receipts
Henrico requires a license but taxes receipts only at $1,000,000 and up, at $0.20 per $100 for retail and professional services. Chesterfield deducts the first $550,000 and taxes only the excess, also at $0.20 for professional services.
Income tax
6% corporate, 5.75% at the top for individuals
The 5.75% bracket applies to taxable income over $17,000, and the brackets aren't indexed. Partnerships, LLCs and S corporations can elect to pay 5.75% at the entity level, and since February 2026 that election is permanent.
Federal conformity
Tied to the federal code as of Dec. 31, 2025
Virginia doesn't follow the 2025 federal law's immediate expensing of domestic research costs, so research spending stays on amortization. It also refuses bonus depreciation, the §168(n) write-off for production property and the higher §179 limits, and its subtraction for disallowed business interest under §163(j) fell from 50% to 20%.
Sales tax
6% in Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield
The rate is 4.3% state, 1% local and 0.7% for the Central Virginia region. Professional services and software delivered over the internet aren't taxed. Richmond and Chesterfield voters decide on November 3, 2026 whether to add 1% for school construction and renovation; Henrico has no referendum.
Business property
$3.70 per $100 on business equipment in Richmond
Henrico charges $3.35 and Chesterfield $3.25 on furniture, fixtures and computers. Machinery and tools pay a separate rate: $2.30 in Richmond, $0.30 in Henrico and $1.00 in Chesterfield. Returns are due March 1, and assets go on them at original cost even after they are fully depreciated.
Employers
Minimum wage
$12.77 now, $13.75 in 2027, $15.00 in 2028
Both increases are fixed in statute, and indexing to CPI resumes in 2029. Tipped employees can be paid a cash wage of $2.13 an hour as long as wages plus tips reach the state minimum.
Pay transparency
Pay ranges in every posting since July 1, 2026
Every Virginia employer, whatever its size, must post a good-faith pay range in each public and internal job posting, promotions and transfers included. Asking about or relying on salary history is banned. The Attorney General can impose up to $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each one after.
Non-competes
Barred below $1,507.01 a week in earnings
Virginia voids non-competes for employees whose average weekly earnings fall under the state average weekly wage, and for any employee entitled to overtime. Since July 1, 2026, a non-compete can't be enforced against an employee let go without cause and without severance, and they are banned outright for licensed health care professionals. The civil penalty is $10,000 per violation.
Paid leave
Sick leave from July 2027, family leave contributions from April 2028
Today the state's sick leave law covers only home health workers. Employers with 50 or more employees start giving 1 hour of paid sick leave per 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year, on July 1, 2027; those with 25 or more follow on January 1, 2028, and every employer in 2029. Paid family and medical leave contributions begin April 1, 2028, at a rate the state sets by October 1, 2027.
RetirePath Virginia
Required at 5 or more employees since July 1, 2026
An employer with five or more eligible employees and no qualified plan, such as a 401(k), SEP or SIMPLE, must offer the state's payroll-deduction IRA. The old threshold was 25 employees. The program's board can set penalties of up to $200 per eligible employee a year.
Unemployment insurance
$8,000 wage base, 2.5% plus add-ons for new employers
The tax applies to the first $8,000 of each employee's wages, a base unchanged since 1991. Out-of-state highway and building contractors pay the 6.2% maximum rate for at least three calendar years.
Questions Richmond owners ask
How quickly do Virginia contractors and subcontractors have to be paid?
On private jobs, the owner's contract must require payment within 60 days of an invoice for completed work, with written notice of any withholding within 45 days. A general contractor pays its subcontractors by the earlier of 60 days after their invoice or 7 days after it is paid for that work. Pay-if-paid clauses are unenforceable unless the paying party is insolvent, and private retainage is left to the contract with no statutory cap. More on controller support for construction companies.
Is a general contractor liable for a subcontractor's unpaid wages?
On subcontracts signed on or after July 1, 2026, it can be. The general contractor and the sub are jointly and severally liable for the sub's employees' wages when the project isn't single-family residential, it is worth more than $500,000, and the general contractor knew or should have known of the unpaid wages. The sub must indemnify the general contractor unless the general contractor's own nonpayment caused the default.
What are the mechanics' lien deadlines in Virginia?
The memorandum of lien is filed no later than 90 days from the last day of the month in which the claimant last worked or supplied material, and never more than 90 days after the building is completed or work ends. It can't include work more than 150 days before the last day of work, except retainage of up to 10% of the contract price. Commercial jobs have no preliminary-notice step; that rule applies to one- and two-family homes whose building permit names a mechanics' lien agent.
Which contractor license class does a Richmond builder need?
Any job over $1,000 needs a state license, and the class limits rose on July 1, 2025. Class C covers jobs under $30,000 (or under $250,000 a year), Class B jobs under $150,000 (or under $1 million a year), and Class A anything larger. A local business license doesn't substitute for it. Virginia treats contractors as the consumer of their materials, so they pay sales tax when they buy them and charge none on the contract.
Can a Richmond company still claim a Virginia R&D credit?
Not for tax years beginning in 2025 or later. Both state credits, the refundable R&D Expenses credit and the Major R&D credit for companies with more than $5 million of research spending, expired and were not revived in 2026. Research costs also stay on amortization for Virginia, even where the federal return expenses them.
What tax clearance does a buyer need from a Virginia seller?
A certificate covering sales tax. The buyer must hold back enough of the purchase price until the seller produces a receipt or certificate from the Tax Commissioner showing no sales tax is due. A buyer who skips the holdback is personally liable for the seller's unpaid sales tax, penalties and interest. The rule covers sales and use tax only, not income or withholding tax. See how we help owners prepare a business for sale.
How does a Virginia S corporation or LLC make the pass-through entity election?
It elects each year on a timely filed return, by the due date including extensions. The entity pays 5.75% on the Virginia taxable income of its individual, estate and trust owners and can't deduct the tax as a state and local income tax. Each owner gets a refundable credit for their share and adds back the entity's deduction for state and local taxes.
What does Virginia charge each year to keep an LLC or corporation in good standing?
An LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee to the State Corporation Commission by the last day of its anniversary month and files no annual report. A stock corporation files a no-fee annual report and pays a registration fee based on its authorized shares, from $100 for up to 5,000 shares to a maximum of $1,700.
Figures verified October 2026 against the Code of Virginia, Virginia Tax, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, the Virginia Employment Commission, the State Corporation Commission, the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, the City of Richmond, Henrico County and Chesterfield County. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Richmond Finance Talent
Richmond's financial managers out-earn the national median: $173,140 against $166,570.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 3,480 financial managers in the Richmond metro, the category that covers controllers and finance directors. Median pay is $173,140, about 4% above the national median of $166,570, and the top tenth earns $302,060 or more. Accountants and auditors earn a median of $84,220, level with the nation.
Census counts 1,857 business locations with 50 to 499 employees in the metro, and a controller or finance director search at any of them starts in that pool of 3,480. A company that needs CFO judgment for a sale, a refinancing or an ESOP conversion can have it without adding a full-time seat.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, Richmond, VA 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?
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