Outsourced CFO & Accounting Services in Detroit
Financial leadership built for the automotive capital in transformation. Expert outsourced finance for auto parts suppliers, tooling companies, healthcare providers, and defense contractors navigating the EV transition, OEM payment cycles, and Michigan's complex tax environment.
The Detroit Business Landscape
Detroit is in the middle of the most consequential industrial transformation in a century, and every business in the metro feels it. General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—the three original equipment manufacturers whose decisions ripple through the entire regional economy—are collectively investing over $100 billion to electrify their vehicle lineups. That commitment is reshaping every tier of a supply chain that employs hundreds of thousands of workers across southeastern Michigan. For the $5M to $50M parts manufacturers, stamping companies, tooling shops, and engineering consultancies that form the backbone of this economy, the question is no longer whether the EV transition will happen. It is whether your company will make it through the transition financially intact.
But Detroit is far more than automobiles. Corewell Health (formerly Beaumont) and Henry Ford Health System anchor a healthcare economy that is among the largest in the Midwest, employing tens of thousands and generating billions in annual revenue. The Detroit Arsenal in Warren houses the U.S. Army's Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, which manages ground combat and tactical vehicle systems for the entire military—creating a defense contracting ecosystem that extends across the metro. And a resurgent downtown has attracted technology companies, professional services firms, and real estate developers who are betting on Detroit's long-term trajectory even as the automotive industry reshuffles itself.
For business owners managing $5M to $50M in revenue, Detroit rewards companies that plan aggressively and execute precisely. The margin for error in automotive supply is thin under normal conditions and razor-thin during a technology transition. Healthcare operates under its own complex regulatory and reimbursement pressures. Defense contracting demands compliance infrastructure that most growing companies lack. The common thread is that each of these industries requires finance leadership with specific domain knowledge—not generalist accounting that happens to be located in Michigan.
Big Three OEMs
GM, Ford, Stellantis
Global automotive headquarters
$100B+ Investment
EV Transition
Reshaping the entire supply chain
TACOM Arsenal
Defense Hub
Ground combat vehicle command
The EV Transition: A Financial Tightrope for Suppliers
The electric vehicle transition creates a financial challenge unlike anything the automotive supply chain has faced. An internal combustion engine powertrain contains roughly 2,000 moving parts. An electric drivetrain contains around 20. For a Tier 1 or Tier 2 supplier that built its business manufacturing transmission housings, exhaust components, fuel injection parts, or engine gaskets, the math is stark: the products that generate today's revenue are being engineered out of existence. The question is not whether ICE volumes will decline, but how fast—and whether your company can develop EV-relevant capabilities before legacy revenue disappears.
Retooling a manufacturing line from ICE components to EV parts—battery enclosures, electric motor housings, thermal management systems, power electronics packaging—requires capital expenditures that can range from $2 million for a modest CNC cell conversion to $20 million or more for a full production line buildout. These investments must be funded while legacy ICE revenue is still flowing but declining on an uncertain timeline. Finance leadership must model multiple scenarios: what happens if ICE volumes decline 10% per year? What about 20%? At what point does the company's ICE revenue fail to cover the debt service on EV retooling investments? What is the breakeven point on new EV contracts, and how sensitive is that breakeven to raw material cost fluctuations in aluminum, copper, and steel?
Michigan's SOAR Fund, the federal Inflation Reduction Act manufacturing credits, and various Department of Energy grants offer financial incentives for EV supply chain investments. But capturing these incentives requires detailed applications, compliance documentation, and ongoing reporting that adds yet another burden to companies already stretched thin by the operational demands of the transition. A strong finance team can identify which incentive programs align with the company's investment timeline, build the financial documentation required for applications, and integrate the expected incentive value into capital budgeting models—turning what looks like a paperwork exercise into a material reduction in the cost of transition.
OEM Payment Terms and Working Capital Pressure
If you supply parts to General Motors, Ford, or Stellantis, you understand a fundamental truth about the automotive supply chain: the OEMs set the terms. Payment terms of 60 to 90 days are standard. Annual cost-down requirements of 2% to 5% are non-negotiable. Production volumes can be adjusted with as little as a few weeks' notice based on dealer inventory levels, consumer demand shifts, or the OEM's own production scheduling decisions. For a $10M supplier, carrying $1.5 to $2.5 million in receivables from a single OEM customer is typical—and that outstanding balance represents cash the business has already spent on raw materials, labor, and overhead.
The working capital pressure this creates is relentless. Raw material suppliers and steel service centers often demand payment in 30 days or less. Payroll runs every week or two. But OEM payments arrive 60 to 90 days after shipment. This timing gap must be bridged with revolving credit facilities, and the size and terms of those facilities directly affect the company's ability to take on new business. A supplier that wins a $5 million annual contract from Ford needs the working capital to fund three months of production costs before the first payment arrives—and many growing suppliers discover too late that their existing credit line is not sized for growth.
Platform cancellations add another dimension of risk. When an OEM discontinues a vehicle model—as happens periodically when sales disappoint expectations—every supplier with parts on that platform loses revenue with minimal advance notice. A well-managed finance function maintains scenario models that show the impact of losing any single platform, ensures the company's credit facilities have enough headroom to absorb the shock, and diversifies the customer base to reduce dependence on any one OEM or vehicle program. These are not theoretical exercises; they are survival skills in the Detroit automotive ecosystem.
Michigan's Tax Landscape and Manufacturing Incentives
Michigan's tax environment creates both burdens and opportunities for growing businesses. The state levies a 6% Corporate Income Tax on C-corporations and taxes flow-through entities at the individual level, where the top rate is 4.25%. But the headline rates only tell part of the story. Detroit itself imposes a city income tax of 2.4% on residents and 1.2% on non-residents who work in the city—one of only a handful of cities in Michigan that levies its own income tax. For a company with employees working in Detroit but living in the suburbs, the payroll tax compliance burden is real, and the cost to the business of having a Detroit office is higher than the state rate alone would suggest.
Personal property tax on manufacturing equipment has been a perennial issue for Michigan manufacturers, though the state has enacted exemptions for industrial personal property that can significantly reduce the tax burden if properly documented and claimed. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation offers programs including the Michigan Business Development Program, which provides grants and loans for job creation, and the State Essential Services Assessment, which replaced the old personal property tax for industrial equipment. Navigating these programs requires understanding qualification thresholds, documentation requirements, and clawback provisions that trigger if job creation or investment targets are not met.
For companies investing in EV-related manufacturing, the intersection of state incentives and federal IRA credits creates a complex but potentially lucrative landscape. The Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit under Section 45X, the Clean Vehicle Manufacturing Credit, and Michigan's own EV-related incentive programs can be stacked in ways that materially reduce the effective cost of retooling investments. But the compliance requirements are intricate, the documentation demands are heavy, and the interaction between state and federal programs must be carefully modeled to avoid double-counting or compliance failures. Finance leadership that understands this landscape can turn tax planning from a defensive exercise into a competitive advantage.
Healthcare in Metro Detroit
Metro Detroit's healthcare economy is dominated by two large systems—Corewell Health and Henry Ford Health—that together operate dozens of hospitals, hundreds of outpatient facilities, and employ thousands of physicians. For the independent practices, specialty groups, home health agencies, and medical services companies that operate alongside and within these systems, the financial environment is shaped by the systems' market power. Payer contract rates, referral patterns, and vendor terms are all influenced by the gravitational pull of these two organizations.
A growing physician practice or healthcare services company in the $5M to $30M range faces financial challenges that mirror other healthcare markets but carry Detroit-specific wrinkles. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is the dominant commercial payer, and its reimbursement rates and contracting processes differ from other Blue Cross plans nationally. Medicaid reimbursement in Michigan is managed through Healthy Michigan Plan managed care organizations, each with its own payment timelines and prior authorization requirements. For practices serving the auto industry workforce, workers' compensation claims involve Michigan's no-fault system—one of the most complex in the country—which creates unique billing and collection challenges.
Revenue cycle management in this environment requires more than just billing and collections. It requires payer mix analysis that identifies which insurance contracts are profitable and which are not, physician compensation modeling that aligns incentives with practice growth objectives, and expansion planning that accounts for the capital costs of new locations and equipment alongside the ramp-up period before a new office reaches profitability. For healthcare companies considering affiliations or acquisitions, clean financials and clear profitability metrics are prerequisites for meaningful negotiations with potential partners.
Defense Contracting and the Detroit Arsenal
The Detroit Arsenal in Warren is home to the U.S. Army's Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command and the Ground Vehicle Systems Center, which together manage the development, acquisition, and sustainment of every ground combat and tactical vehicle in the military's fleet. This creates a concentrated defense contracting ecosystem in the metro area, supporting companies that provide engineering services, manufacturing, testing, logistics support, and IT services to military ground vehicle programs. For a growing company in the $5M to $30M range entering or expanding in defense work, the compliance requirements are substantial and non-negotiable.
DCAA—the Defense Contract Audit Agency—audits contractor cost accounting systems to ensure compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation cost principles and Cost Accounting Standards. This means maintaining cost accounting systems that segregate direct costs by contract, calculate and defend indirect cost rates (fringe, overhead, and general & administrative), and produce annual incurred cost submissions within six months of fiscal year-end. For companies that also do commercial work—and most Detroit defense contractors do, given the automotive industry's proximity—the accounting systems must keep government and commercial work completely separate while using common overhead pools that are allocated fairly between the two.
The penalty for getting this wrong is severe. A failed DCAA audit can result in cost disallowances, withheld payments, contract termination, or debarment from future government work. For a company that derives 40% of its revenue from Army contracts, debarment is effectively a death sentence for half the business. Building DCAA-compliant financial systems from the ground up is expensive and time-consuming, which is exactly why an outsourced finance team with government contracting experience is often the most cost-effective path for growing companies. Rather than hiring a full-time government accounting specialist at Detroit salary levels, the company gets the compliance expertise it needs as part of a broader finance engagement that also handles commercial accounting, cash flow management, and strategic planning.
What Growing Detroit Businesses Need from a Finance Partner
The thread connecting every major industry in Detroit is transformation. Automotive suppliers are transforming their product lines for electrification. Healthcare providers are navigating consolidation and shifting reimbursement models. Defense contractors are adapting to new acquisition strategies and modernization priorities. And the broader Detroit economy is transforming from a one-industry town into a diversified metro that attracts talent and investment across multiple sectors. Each of these transformations involves significant capital allocation decisions, cash flow management challenges, and strategic planning requirements that exceed what basic accounting can provide.
A finance partner serving Detroit businesses must understand that an automotive supplier's financial model looks fundamentally different from a healthcare practice's, and both look different from a defense contractor's. OEM payment cycles, EV capital investment timing, DCAA compliance, payer mix optimization, Michigan's tax incentive landscape—these are not abstract concepts. They are the specific financial realities that determine whether a $10M company in Detroit becomes a $30M company or stalls out and contracts.
Detroit has always been a city that rewards companies willing to invest in their own capabilities during periods of disruption. The businesses that emerged strongest from the 2008 financial crisis were the ones that used the downturn to restructure, invest, and position themselves for the recovery. The EV transition is a similar inflection point. The companies that invest in finance leadership now—leadership that can model the transition, manage the cash flow, and guide capital allocation decisions—are the ones that will be standing on the other side of this transformation in a position of strength.
Scale Your Detroit Business with Confidence
Get finance leadership that understands automotive supply chain economics, EV transition capital planning, DCAA compliance, and Michigan's tax incentive landscape. We work with Detroit businesses from $5M to $50M in revenue.