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.
Lynne Doughtie is U.S. chairman and CEO of KPMG LLP. She also is a member of KPMG’s Global Board and Executive Committee. From 2011 to 2015, Lynne served as vice chair of KPMG’s Advisory business, establishing Advisory as the firm’s fastest growing business. She also oversaw the expansion of KPMG’s capabilities in innovative services and solutions, including information security, strategy, digital/mobile, and transformation. Lynne began her career in KPMG’s Audit practice in 1985 and has served in a number of national, regional, and global leadership roles, including lead partner for several of KPMG’s major clients. Lynne is a governing board member for the Center for Audit Quality and a member of The Committee of 200. She also serves as a board member for NAF, the Partnership for New York City, and LUNGevity.
Alexandre Bilger is president and chief executive officer at Sinequa. With over eighteen years of experience as a top executive within enterprise software, Alexandre has a proven ability to build and lead high performing organizations. In addition of being a thought leader, he is passionate about cutting edge technologies i.e. artificial intelligence, machine learning, cognitive computing and NLP. Prior being appointed CEO of Sinequa, Alexandre co-founded and was chief technology officer at E-Front, a data-processing software vendor specializing in the financial industries. He started his career as a lead architect at NAT System, a leading client server development tools vendor.
Gediminas Ziemelis is chairman of the board of Avia Solutions Group.
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:
