A city can collect a tax and still miss the money. The payment has been made; the mistake is where it lands. For a finance director balancing next year’s budget, a misplaced allocation is a very real hole. Robert Hinderliter understood that problem from the inside. Before founding HdL Companies, he had been a city manager and finance director. He was dealing with the awkward fact that an important revenue stream could demand more attention than City Hall had time to give it.
- HdL checks tax reporting and allocations, then helps recover revenue.
- Its buyers are local governments; its daily users also include taxpayers.
- Auditors, municipal specialists and cloud software work together.
- Contracts can mix recurring fees with a share of recovered taxes.
The attraction is easy to grasp. Before debating a higher tax rate, find out whether the existing one is being administered properly. HdL has made that question into a business spanning audits, licensing, forecasting and the less glamorous chores between an ordinance and a payment. Glamour, fortunately, is not what keeps a library open.
First, permission to check
HdL’s history starts in 1983. Hinderliter left his municipal post and established his own firm. The company’s anniversary account describes early work that involved manually entering taxpayer registrations and monthly allocations into spreadsheets. By 1987, when former city manager Lloyd de Llamas joined as a half-owner, the operation had 25 clients and three part-time employees.
The important early obstacle was access. Useful analysis required the ability to verify state sales tax allocations independently. HdL credits its lobbying efforts with helping secure California Assembly Bill 1611 in 1985. That sequence matters: expertise and computing could only become useful once the underlying information could be examined. A handsome spreadsheet has limited powers against a locked door.
Over time, the work spread into adjacent revenue streams. HdL Coren & Cone was established for property tax in 1992; HdL Software followed in 1996. The logic was ordinary and commercially useful. A city needing better sales tax information might also need a reliable property tax forecast or a less cumbersome business-license process.
HdL’s current company-reported total. Money recovered for public agencies, not the company’s own sales.
The missing employee in the process
Tax administration has at least two audiences. Finance staff want complete records and dependable collections. Business owners want to know what they owe, how to pay it, and why someone is sending another form. A system that serves only the first audience can make life needlessly unpleasant for the second.
HdL offers governments several ways to handle that work. A department can use its software, buy specialist compliance help, or outsource operations including taxpayer contact, hosting, mailings, audits and collections. The firm draws on former city managers, finance directors and revenue staff. Their experience is part of what a municipality purchases: someone who knows how local rules become daily procedures.
West Covina and San Mateo illustrate two different needs. In HdL’s published case study, both had staffing and software constraints. West Covina outsourced its business-tax process starting in 2017. The company reports a 45% increase in business tax and fee revenue and a 95% collection rate in that case. Those are reported client outcomes, rather than a forecast for the next city.
“When businesses have questions, HdL has answers.”David Carmany, West Covina City Manager, in HdL’s client case study
San Mateo sought help discovering businesses outside its tax register. HdL reports identifying more than 300 by 2021. The pandemic then pushed the city’s paper process online. San Mateo also waived penalties, interest and prior-year taxes to ease pressure on businesses. Better administration and a decision to collect less can coexist. The government still determines the policy.
A dashboard needs someone who understands the ordinance
HdL Prime is its cloud platform for locally administered revenue programs. It supports business licensing and taxes, lodging taxes and other local workflows. For a business owner, that can mean applying, renewing and paying through an online portal. For municipal staff, the point is keeping those transactions connected to the correct account and process.
The competitive pitch is specialization. HdL argues that a broad enterprise resource planning system may serve accounting well while leaving a revenue department with awkward workflows. Its Oakland software case describes the appeal of a dedicated tool that can integrate with an ERP. That is a vendor’s account of the comparison, but the purchasing question is sound: how much work will staff do after the software arrives?
- 01 Identify
- 02 Apply rules
- 03 Collect
- 04 Analyze
A conceptual workflow, not a product screenshot. Each step needs both usable records and municipal judgment.
A government can also buy audit and analytics services without handing over an entire department. Sales tax clients receive analysis and forecasting support, alongside access to a data website. Property tax work includes allocation audits, projections, special assessments and bond-related services. HdL sits where financial advice, operational labor and software meet.
The useful number is the fee
Healdsburg’s August 2025 staff report makes the economics unusually concrete. Its proposed five-year agreement specified $650 a month for analysis, reporting and software access, subject to annual inflation adjustments. Audit compensation was separate: 15% of recovered sales and use tax revenue, and 25% of recovered transaction tax revenue.
Different tax categories, different fees. These proposed terms are specific to Healdsburg.
Consider a hypothetical $100,000 sales and use tax recovery under a 15% fee: $15,000 would go to the auditor and $85,000 would remain with the city, before fixed charges and other costs. It is simple arithmetic, not a claim about an actual recovery. The monthly service has value even when an audit finds no error; it buys information and support.
HdL has alternatives. Madera’s 2020 procurement report compared it directly with Avenu, showing the same 15% sales-tax audit contingency rate and similar annual analytics fees. Specialist software also competes with ERP modules and in-house work. Buyers should compare scope, fee periods, implementation, support and staff effort. A percentage alone tells remarkably little.
The owners also work here
In 2007, Hinderliter and de Llamas sold the company to an employee stock ownership trust. HdL’s careers material connects employee ownership with retirement benefits and a stake in the firm’s success. Its stated culture emphasizes service, integrity, relationships and humility. These are company descriptions; the ownership arrangement is the more concrete detail.
Geographic expansion followed through acquisitions including Sales Tax Assurance in 2017, PREMA in 2018 and key DataMax assets in 2023. HdL’s 2025 Founders Day post reported more than 900 clients and over 250 employees. In September 2026, Richard Park became President and CFO, while Andy Nickerson remained CEO. The firm’s footprint has grown considerably beyond its California beginnings.
New businesses, familiar paperwork
HdL’s newer-looking assignments often contain the same old administrative puzzle. A short-term rental must be identified, registered and checked for lodging tax compliance. A legal cannabis business needs a licensing and inspection framework, financial audits and tax administration. HdL offers cannabis services where the activity is legal; rules and service availability differ by jurisdiction.
Its ECONSolutions work takes the question further upstream, offering market analytics, business-attraction support and economic development plans. Collecting existing revenue and encouraging future economic activity are related tasks, although they demand different expertise. A municipality can need both without confusing an audit with a growth strategy.
One particularly pleasant-sounding assignment involves wine. An August 2025 announcement describes HdL’s collaboration with Civitas on Santa Barbara County’s wine improvement district. Civitas handled the legal framework and formation strategy; HdL was selected to administer fees and compliance. A 1% assessment on in-state wine sales funded marketing and outreach. Even wine tourism eventually needs someone to reconcile the accounts.
The practical lesson is to examine weak receipts before explaining them. HdL’s September 2026 guidance urges finance leaders to compare tax data with local signals such as business openings, closures and development schedules. A delayed project, a collection problem and a slowing economy can produce similar-looking numbers. The remedy depends on which one occurred.
This approach needs lawful access to records, workable local rules and enough value to justify the complete cost. An audit cannot manufacture taxable activity that never happened. A city still needs to decide its priorities and supervise its contractors. What it can copy from HdL is the habit of asking a rather unfashionable question: has somebody checked the details?