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.
Sam Bosch is president and CEO of Peregrin Financial Technologies.
Steve Villegas is vice president of partner management for PPRO's U.S. headquarters.
Dr. Armen Kherlopian is chief science officer in the Analytics & Research practice at Genpact, a global leader in digitally-powered business process management and services. He has provided high impact data science advisory services for Global Fortune 100 companies and government organizations such as NASA.He is a co-author of the "Field Guide to Data Science," which has been downloaded more than 15,000 times. Dr. Kherlopian is a Lindau Nobel Laureate Fellow, and holds a B.S. and M.S. in biomedical engineering with a focus on algorithms from Columbia University, a Ph.D. in biophysics with a focus on machine learning from Cornell University, and completed a fellowship in high performance computing at Princeton University.
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:
