Fractional CFO Services in San Antonio
Fractional CFO and controller services for San Antonio construction, contractors, distribution, manufacturing, and service businesses.
Texas Coverage
Fractional CFO and Controller services for San Antonio-area businesses.
Vessel Advisors supports businesses across San Antonio and the broader South Texas market — construction contractors, manufacturers, healthcare operators, cybersecurity firms, government contractors, and professional service firms. Our team includes CFOs and Controllers local to San Antonio, backed by a vetted national bench of senior finance leaders who support businesses that need expert help.
San Antonio has become one of the fastest-growing metros in the country. Military and government-adjacent industry provides a stable base; the growth on top of that base is what creates the business opportunity — and the finance-function strain that comes with scaling faster than infrastructure can keep up.
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
San Antonio grew out of a military and industrial base and has since become one of the fastest-growing business markets in the country.
San Antonio is anchored by JBSA, USAA, the healthcare and biosciences sector, and a growing cybersecurity industry that spun out of military intelligence. Layered on top: the construction and industrial trades keeping up with population growth from the Austin corridor and beyond, and a manufacturing base that spans defense-adjacent suppliers, consumer goods, and Mexico-facing cross-border industry.
From a finance standpoint, San Antonio companies often reflect the market: businesses that scaled fast on regional growth, with accounting infrastructure sized for the original company. Owners at $5M who are now $30M, still running the finance function on the same bookkeeper and QuickBooks setup, discovering the gap when a lender asks for real reporting, a partner wants to invest, or a sale becomes a possibility.
What we see most:
- Construction contractors and specialty trades scaling with regional growth — and trying to maintain margin discipline through WIP and bonding complexity.
- Manufacturers in the defense supply chain, industrial sectors, and cross-border trade.
- Healthcare operators — multi-site clinics, specialty practices, ancillary services — managing payer complexity and multi-entity reporting.
- Government contractors and cybersecurity firms managing DCAA and federal contract accounting.
- Family businesses and founder-led operators preparing for the next stage they hadn't planned for.
Industries
Where we work most in South Texas.
Construction and the trades
Commercial general contractors, residential builders, specialty trades. WIP accounting, retention tracking, surety relationships, and job-cost discipline are the recurring pressure points. Our $110M commercial contractor case study details the work.
Manufacturing and industrial
Defense-adjacent manufacturers, industrial suppliers, and cross-border operators serving Mexico and the broader region. Inventory accuracy, gross margin visibility, and standard cost discipline. Our manufacturing case study shows the pattern.
Healthcare and multi-site services
Multi-site clinics, specialty practices, ancillary services, and healthcare-adjacent operators. Payer mix reporting, site-level P&L, multi-entity consolidation, and the reporting discipline the healthcare industry increasingly requires.
Government contractors and cybersecurity
Prime and subcontract federal contractors, cybersecurity firms, and government-adjacent professional services. DCAA compliance, indirect rate management, contract profitability, and audit-ready books.
Texas Taxes and Compliance
Texas leaves owner income untaxed. From 2026, the first $125,000 of business property at each location is exempt.
Without a state or city income tax, San Antonio companies answer to the franchise, sales and property taxes and the employer rules below. Contractors also work to the state's payment, retainage and lien deadlines.
Taxes
Business personal property
$125,000 per location, up from $2,500
From tax year 2026, the first $125,000 of income-producing personal property at each location in a taxing unit is exempt. Property at locations the owner neither owns nor leases gets its own $125,000, and so does all of the owner's leased-out property in the taxing unit.
Renditions
Due April 15, and only above the exemption
A rendition is required only for a location whose property exceeds the exemption, and the deadline extends to May 15 on written request. One rendition certifying that a location is at or under $125,000 ends the annual filing from the next tax year until ownership changes, though the chief appraiser can still require one.
Sales tax
8.25%, with 1.125% to the city
San Antonio's rate is 6.25% state, 1.125% city, 0.375% for the Advanced Transportation District and 0.50% for VIA. Older sources show a different split of the same 8.25% total.
Franchise tax
A report every May 15, even with no tax due
Corporations, LLCs and limited partnerships owe nothing at $2.65M or less in revenue on 2026 and 2027 reports, but each still files a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report. An entity that skips it loses the right to transact business and to sue or defend in Texas courts, and its officers, directors, members and owners can become personally liable for certain entity debts.
Income tax
No income tax on owners or wages
Texas has no individual income tax, and San Antonio levies no city income, earnings or payroll-expense tax. LLCs, limited partnerships and S corporations answer to the franchise tax at the entity level whatever their federal pass-through status.
Employers
Paid sick leave
San Antonio's ordinance doesn't bind private employers
Texas has no sick leave law of its own, and since September 1, 2023, Labor Code 1.005 has voided city rules on employment leave, hiring practices, breaks, benefits and scheduling for private employers. An appeals court reversed a 2023 trial-court ruling against the law on July 18, 2025, and a petition for review is pending at the Supreme Court of Texas.
Minimum wage
$7.25, except on city contracts
State law supersedes city wage ordinances for private employment. The exception is work under a public contract or agreement with the city, where the city's own wage terms can apply.
Unemployment insurance
2026 rates from 0.32% to 6.32%
A new employer starts at 2.70% and stays there until it has four chargeable quarters. Every rate applies to the first $9,000 of each employee's wages.
E-Verify
Required of state agencies, not private employers
Texas agencies must run every new hire through E-Verify. A 2025 bill to extend the mandate to all employers passed the Senate and died in the House.
Family and medical leave
No state program and no payroll contribution
Texas has no state disability insurance or paid family and medical leave program. A 2025 bill to create a state family and medical leave program died in a House subcommittee.
Construction
Licensing
No state general contractor license
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation licenses electricians, air conditioning and refrigeration contractors and other trades, and the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners licenses plumbers. General contractors need no state license and post no state license bond.
Public work
10% retainage cap, 5% at $5M and up
Public contracts under $5M cap retainage at 10% and contracts of $5M or more at 5%, except dams, and a prime can't hold back a larger share from a sub than the owner holds from the prime. Performance bonds apply above $100,000 and payment bonds above $25,000, or above $50,000 for cities.
Franchise tax for contractors
Subcontractor payments come out of revenue
A contractor excludes payments to subcontractors on real-property construction from total revenue. It is also treated as the owner of the labor and materials, so both count in cost of goods sold.
Questions San Antonio owners ask
When do subcontractors on a San Antonio job send lien notices?
By the 15th day of the third month after the month they provided work or materials, or the second month on residential projects, to the owner and the original contractor on the statutory form. A subcontractor's lien affidavit follows by the 15th of the fourth month after its last month of work, or the third on residential work, with a copy to the owner within 5 days of filing; the original contractor gives no preliminary notice.
How fast does a general contractor have to pay subs on private work?
Within 7 days of being paid by the owner, who has 35 days from a written payment request. Late amounts accrue 1.5% interest a month, and an unpaid contractor can suspend work 10 days after written notice of nonpayment. A good-faith dispute lets a party withhold no more than 100% of the disputed difference, or 110% on a one-to-four-family home. More on fractional controllers for construction companies.
What will a buyer need from me when I sell my San Antonio company?
A buyer who doesn't hold back enough of the price until you produce a Comptroller receipt or Certificate of No Tax Due is liable for your state taxes up to the purchase price. Seller and buyer request the certificate jointly on Form 86-114; it's free and usually takes about 10 business days without an audit. The Texas Workforce Commission can also collect unpaid unemployment tax from a buyer of the business or substantially all its assets, with no price cap. See how we help owners prepare a business for sale.
Can we enforce non-competes with our clinicians and key staff?
Texas enforces a non-compete that is ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and reasonable in time, area and scope, and a court must reform one that overreaches. For physicians, dentists, nurses and physician assistants, a covenant entered or renewed on or after September 1, 2025 must also allow a buyout capped at annual salary and wages, end within one year after termination and stay within a 5-mile radius.
Does the franchise tax still use the 2007 federal tax code?
Only where the franchise tax chapter expressly cites the Internal Revenue Code. From the 2026 report, the Comptroller applies current federal law to total revenue, cost of goods sold, compensation and gross receipts, so a manufacturer's depreciation on production assets in cost of goods sold includes federal bonus on assets placed in service on or after January 19, 2025. The 2007-code section 179 cap of $25,000, with its $200,000 phase-out, applies only to 2025 and earlier reports.
We claim the federal research credit. Does Texas have one?
Yes. Qualified research expenses for the Texas credit are the Texas share of Form 6765 line 48, computed under current federal law. The credit is 8.722% of those expenses above 50% of the prior three periods' average, or 10.903% with a higher-education research contract, and it can offset up to 50% of tax due.
Figures verified October 2026 against the Texas Constitution; the Texas Tax, Labor, Property, Government and Business and Commerce Codes; Texas Legislature bill records and appellate court records; the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, including its October 2026 sales tax rate table; the Texas Workforce Commission; the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation; and the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
San Antonio Finance Talent
San Antonio's financial managers earn $144,710 at the median, against $166,570 nationally.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 4,910 financial managers in the San Antonio metro, the category that covers controllers and finance directors. Their median pay is $144,710, against a national median of $166,570, and the top tenth earns $283,980 or more.
The metro has 3,148 business locations with 50 to 499 employees, and it added 38,402 residents in 2025, the ninth-largest gain of any U.S. metro. A company that has outgrown its bookkeeper can bring in CFO judgment without competing for one of those 4,910 managers full time.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, San Antonio-New Braunfels 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?
Coverage
We cover San Antonio.
Our team includes CFOs and Controllers based in San Antonio. We staff engagements with local presence and pull in the vetted national bench when scope requires additional depth. Coverage area: San Antonio, New Braunfels, Boerne, Seguin, San Marcos, Schertz, Universal City, and the broader South Texas market.
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