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.
Navid Alipour is co-founder and managing partner at Analytics Ventures, a Venture Formation Fund focused on starting new ventures with artificial intelligence and machine learning at their core. Through the founding of multiple Artificial Intelligence (AI) based companies like CureMetrix and CureMatch, Navid is a long-time entrepreneur in the AI space, and looks to address the need between angel investors and big venture capital funds. He has a passion for finding scientists and academics who are domain experts in their respective fields, and helping them turn their research into viable businesses, helping build companies from inception.
Ryan Kottenstette’s career has spanned executive management, product development, and venture capital. Prior to cofounding Cape Analytics, Ryan was an investor at Khosla Ventures, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm where he invested in and incubated several technology companies applying computer vision and artificial intelligence in industries ranging from shipping logistics, to agriculture, to healthcare. Ryan holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as an engineering degree from Santa Clara University. Ryan has a very supportive wife and two young children, and in his rare spare time he enjoys spending time hiking with his family and riding/repairing old motorcycles.
Mary Margaret Prange, CPA, is an audit partner with Calibre CPA Group. She has been in public accounting since 2001, and has significant audit experience with not-for-profit organizations including trade and professional associations, charitable foundations, advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, employee benefit plans and labor unions. She is the head of the firm’s Continuing Education Committee and is responsible for planning, developing and delivering a majority of the firm’s internal CPE programs each year. She is also responsible for developing and administering the firm’s summer externship and internship programming each year. Mary Margaret received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from James Madison University and is a CPA licensed in the District of Columbia and Commonwealth of Virginia. She also serves as a board member for the James Madison University School of Accounting Guiding Executives Board.
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:
