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.
Michael Riley is practice leader for Logicalis Healthcare Solutions.
Piyush Jain is vice president of engineering at Centage. With over 20 years of experience leading development teams for enterprise products, Mr. Jain is responsible for all aspects of product development at Centage. He brings deep expertise designing and delivering scalable analytics products, web and cloud-based architectures, OLAP, Big Data, Corporate Performance Management and Business Intelligence applications. Follow on Twitter @Centage.
Jordan Birnbaum has been with ADP since 2015, as vice president and chief behavioral economist. He directs the application of behavioral economics principles into new product development in the human capital management market. Prior to joining ADP, he was the owner/operator of The Vanguard in Los Angeles, a hybrid media production and live music venue, employing more than 150 people for close to a decade. He was a founding employee and senior vice president of business development of Juno Online Services, playing a key role in a successful IPO and then beating analysts’ estimates for six consecutive quarters. Jordan graduated from Cornell University with a BS, Policy Analysis, and from NYU with an MA in Industrial / Organizational Psychology.
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:
