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.
Jonathan Dixon is a solution architect at Datawatch, helping ro implement new line-of-business applications. Prior to Datawatch, Jonathan was a database consultant for Ernst & Young and a business intelligence analyst for RBS Markets & International Banking. He holds a master’s in electrical engineering from King’s College in London.
Mark Mele is vice president at Casetabs, which offers cloud-based surgery coordination technology. He has 15 years of sales and marketing experience in medical devices, working for ConMed, Biomet and NuVasive.
For more than a decade, Joe Marullo has been helping companies mine and utilize data analytics to support strategy development and operational planning and execution. At Zillion, he aims to help customers improve health outcomes and reduce related costs. A former director at John Hancock, Joe previously served as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Army and is a graduate of West Point with an MBA from Boston 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:
