Agree that in all cases Accounting is considered a support function - again with the exception of professional services accounting firms, where it is a front office / revenue generating function.

However, a slightly different perspective to Alex. In almost all cases the accounting function will sit within the Finance team, whose remit, broadly is to manage the financial stability of the organisation. Accounting is only one aspect of finance - which would also include financial planning, forecasting, etc. Broadly there are typically two key parts / roles to accounting:
-Management Accounting: This part of the accounting team is responsible for helping management to understand the financial state of the business. A large component of management accounting is reporting - largely the purpose of management accounting is to give the other parts of the organisation the information they need to make sound financial decisions
-Financial accounting: This part of the accounting team is responsible for "making sure all the numbers tally up correctly." What this means is that it is this teams responsibility to ensure the key accounts are updated (Balance Sheet, Ledger, P&L, Cash flow statements etc).

Hope this helps to clarify

I think you'll find that in most firms the role of accounting is reporting, so it is seen as a support function, working alongside other departments such as manufacturing, sales and marketing. Whilst it may be a department unto itself, it will have specialists who work directly with this functions, not just reporting what has happened from a financial perspective, but also potentially helping with strategy i.e. Giving the financial arguments both for and against a new investment. It is worth noting that obviously in some firms it is the central function such as PWC, Deloitte and KPMG.
Hope that's helpful.