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.
Justin Rodenbostel is a software engineer and architect, and vice president of open source development at SPR Consulting, where he leads one of the custom application development practices at the digital technology consultancy. Throughout his career, Justin has worked on large, mission critical enterprise apps, small internal apps, and everything in between – for clients as small as a 3-person startup and as large as a global Fortune 50.
Esther F. Morales is the former chief executive of the National Women’s Business Council.
Claudia Viek is founder of the Invest in Women Entrepreneurs Initiative and former chief executive of the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity.
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:
