Employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic claimed some outlandish expenses this year, including pricey exercise bikes, facelifts and private jets.
Emburse, an expense management software company, released a compilation Wednesday of some of the craziest expenses it has seen claimed this year, some of which were actually approved. That included $1,895, which was approved as a contribution for an employee's Peloton Bike under the explanation of “for health and wellness.” On the other hand, a $7,600 expense claim for a facelift was submitted under the category of “repairs and maintenance” but was rejected, despite the pressing need to look one’s best during a Zoom meeting.
Ken Krupa is CTO of MarkLogic.
Oren Eini, chief executive officer and founder of Hibernating Rhinos, has more than 20 years of experience in the development world with a strong focus on the Microsoft and .NET ecosystem. Recognized as one of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professionals since 2007, Oren is also the author of "Inside RavenDB." He frequently speaks at industry conferences such as DevTeach, JAOO, QCon, Oredev, NDC, Yow! and Progressive.NET. An avid blogger, you can also find him under his pseudonym as Ayende Rahien at http://www.ayende.com/Blog/.
Gerard Brennan has more than 35 years of experience in the municipal bond industry in evaluations, brokering, trading, sales, underwriting and operations. He is the author of Chapter 27, “Municipal Bond Evaluations,” in The Handbook of Municipal Bonds by Frank Fabozzi. A former president and member of the board of governors of the Municipal Bond Club of New York, he launched and remains involved with its annual industry panel series. Brennan is a graduate of Iona College.
Some expenses weren’t for working from home, but more about getting out of the house safely. An expense claim for a private jet charter costing over $20,000 was submitted and approved under the explanation of “required to limit COVID exposure for international shoots.” Another travel-related expense claim was $2,500 for a helicopter ride, which was not approved.
The $79 expense claim for a dog crate could perhaps be used for travel at some point when that's safer, but in these times it was more plausibly to provide "crate training [for] a new COVID puppy to not run into Zoom meetings."
Below is an infographic produced by Emburse showing this and several other head-scratching claims:
