Thomas Datwyler has worked across a wide range of accounting and compliance matters. Running 9Seven Consulting out of Hudson, Wisconsin since 2013, he’s managed federal and state filings for hundreds of clients — which means His experience gives him a practical view of how varied accounting roles can be. Here’s a breakdown of the major disciplines anyone considering the field should understand.
Financial vs. Managerial: Not the Same Thing
Financial accounting is probably what most people picture. You’re collecting data, building reports, keeping the ledger clean, and making sure the organization stays on the right side of both internal policy and outside regulators. Financial accountants work across departments — their job is as much about strategy as it is about numbers.
Managerial accounting looks similar on paper. It’s not.
These professionals file reports strictly for internal eyes — documents that often carry sensitive information nobody outside the company should see. They work closely with executives and managers to build budgets that actually hold up over time, not just for the next quarter.
Cost Accountants: The Manufacturing Side
Organizations with manufacturing operations often rely on cost accountants.
Their focus is narrower: manufacturing expenses, overhead allocation, keeping production costs in line with what the market will actually bear. They track both fixed and variable expenses, and they give leadership the forecasts and production updates needed to make smart calls about future commitments. It’s detailed, numbers-heavy work — and genuinely underappreciated.
Auditing: Internal vs. External
Certified public accountants, or CPAs, work across many industries, but external auditing is one of their best-known roles. They go into public, private, and nonprofit organizations and examine financial reporting for legal compliance. It’s essentially independent verification.
Internal auditors work differently. They’re inside the organization, looking at employee responsibilities, management policies, operational procedures. Compliance matters here too, but so does efficiency — finding where the company is leaking productivity or profit. There’s even a formal certification for it: the Certified Internal Auditor credential.
Tax Accounting: Still the Most Popular Path
Tax accounting remains one of the most widely pursued paths in the profession. The job goes well beyond filing returns once a year.
Tax accountants serve both private businesses and public companies, handling annual filings under the Internal Revenue Code. But they’re also planning ahead — coordinating strategy so organizations understand the tax implications of every financial decision before they make it. Big corporations? They often run multiple tax accountants simultaneously just to handle the volume.
AIS: The Tech-Driven Side
Accounting information systems — AIS — is where the field starts to feel more like IT. These professionals build and run the systems that collect, store, and process financial data across the whole organization.
Here’s where it gets interesting: in recent years, AIS integration has expanded well beyond the finance department. Linking HR hiring workflows directly to payroll, for instance, cuts out a lot of manual steps when a new employee comes on board. A skilled AIS accountant can spot the right moment to upgrade financial technology — which, done well, saves serious time and money.
What Else Is Out There?
Forensic accounting. Public accounting. Governmental accounting. The list goes on.
One takeaway from the range of disciplines is that accounting is not a single career path — it’s dozens of them. Anyone exploring the field should spend time understanding which discipline actually fits what they want to do. The differences aren’t cosmetic. They’re fundamental.