Day in the Life: Q&A with the Director of Finance Eric Cramer

How would you describe your role on the Finance & Accounting team?  

My role sits at a unique cross-section within EA. I work both vertically and horizontally across the organization—partnering with our executive team while also collaborating closely with our accountants and other teams. I’m responsible for clearly and accurately representing EA’s financial position, supporting reporting processes, and ensuring leaders across the organization have the information they need to make sound decisions.

What interested you in working at EA?  

I’ve always said that I got into the education space by accident. As an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I did a project for a professor whose research field was in education. That project turned into a grad school fellowship at an education-focused research center and then my first job in Washington, D.C. working on a federally funded regional educational laboratory (REL). After a few years, I wanted to be closer to family and looked for opportunities in the education field in Wisconsin and found Education Analytics (EA), with the help of my former boss. When I started at EA, it was similar to the consulting and academic background I had previously worked in, but with more of a technological focus, which I found appealing. 

We know that every day is different, but what would a typical day at EA look like for you?  

I have two different typical days:  

• Meeting-heavy days where I’m collaborating with the Finance & Accounting team as well as trying to make connections between different internal and external stakeholders and the F&A team; or
• Quieter days where I work within our finance and accounting systems to analyze data, provide insights, and try to drive the organization forward. One isn't possible without the other.

What skills do you possess that you find helpful in your role?  

Being inquisitive and questioning.  

What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?  

I truly enjoy the people at EA and my position offers me a unique position to collaborate across multiple areas of the organization and work with a lot of talented, motivated, and compassionate people.

What is your favorite project that you’ve worked on at EA?  

When I joined the Finance & Accounting team, we were very organized around contracts as a reporting and management unit. I helped move away from that into more of a product framework that started to organize around cost of goods sold (COGS), gross margins, etc. This project ended up being a mix of accounting (retooling account and dimension structures), financial planning (creating new financial reports), training (communicating with stakeholders about changes and interpretation), and data analysis (reclassing multiple years of transactions in R).  

If you had to choose a different team to work on at EA, which team would you pick and why?  

I would probably choose something within the Business Operations division, specifically the Internal Data Analytics team. They’re doing some really exciting work leveraging Foundry to improve EA’s underlying data infrastructure, and I’m excited to see where that goes.  

What changes do you anticipate in your field in the next year?  

Technology and AI will continue to expand their usefulness and improve the efficiency and accuracy of routine accounting tasks. I’m looking forward to leveraging Foundry to support revenue recognition, invoicing, allocations, and more. The name of the game will be to continue to do more with the same resources.  

What is something you enjoy in your free time?  

Cooking. I got a pizza oven a few years ago and I love to make my own dough and pizzas in the summer. I have two dogs, so I also like to go on walks with them and explore state parks. 

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?  

I’ve never known how to answer this question. I think I’ve always wanted to work at an organization that does good and to work alongside smart and caring people. I’m lucky to have found both of those criteria at EA.  

What is something that you would tell your younger self about your career? 

Give accounting a chance. 

I started as an accounting major in college but switched to economics and finance after a semester because I found it to be overly boring at the time. Now my work involves a lot of accounting and I've learned to enjoy it.