There are several specialized fields of accounting in practice.The two most common are financial accounting and management accounting.Other fields include cost accounting，environmental accounting，tax accounting，international accounting，not-for-profit accounting，and social accounting.

Financial accounting is concerned with reporting to external parties an organization's financial option，changes in that position and results of the organization.Although such reports provide useful information for managers，they are the principal reports for owners，creditors，governmental agencies，and the public.Management accounting(also called managerial accounting)mainly provides information to management of a firm，and it is related to the internal accounting functions of cost determination，planning，control and performance evaluation.The focus of management accounting is providing managers with relevant and timely information and reports.Financial accountants follow generally accepted accounting principles in preparing reports for stockholders and the investing public.Management accountants use the basic principle of gathering and reporting information that is useful to management.Thus，managerial reports can differ widely in form and content.

The essential differences between management accounting and financial accounting are shown in the following table: