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.
Jamshed Khan is CTO of LeaseQ
Bryan Melchionda is director of alliances at Seal Software, a contract discovery, data extraction and analytics firm.
Joaquim Neto is vice president of healthcare solutions at Verato, Inc., a software firm focused on referential matching. He has decades of experience in information management and master data management technologies across industries with a particular expertise in healthcare and in master patient index (MPI) and health information exchange (HIE) solutions. He has consulted and delivered solutions for healthcare providers and payers of all types—from Fortune 500 health systems to community hospitals. Prior to Verato, Joaquim worked at Initiate Systems and IBM.
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:
