Following the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many companies claim to adopt them in one way or the other. Guided by the ‘SDG Compass’ and other tools, companies are advised to go through a process of trying to understand the SDGs, defining priorities, setting goals, integrating, and reporting and communicating the results. The article points to the nature of implementing the SDGs in business, including going from macro to micro goals, managerialism, and instrumental rationality, all implicitly present in the discourse of SDGs. Such an understanding on how to implement the SDGs, however, requires a strong role of the accounting system of the firm. Based on a framework by Miller and Power (2013), the various roles of accounting assumed in the managerial and instrumental approach to the SDGs are discussed. These roles include the potential of the accounting system to territorialize (sustainability) issues, mediate these to other arenas or higher-order contexts, adjudicate between success and failure, and subjectivize or incentivize people within the organization. The problem of playing out these roles with regard to the SDGs is discussed, and also the perils of doing it, including the risk of losing sight of ethical business conduct as action-guiding principle.