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.
Deirdre Ives is managing director of Wirecard North America.
Matthew Carroll is president and chief executive officer Immuta, a data management platform for data science, and is the former chief technology officer for CSC's Defense & Intelligence unit. Matt has spent the past decade analyzing some of the world’s most complex datasets while supporting multiple US government customers.
Erika Van Noort is the senior director of strategic enablement at Softchoice, a software solutions
and managed services provider. In her role, she works with clients to build understanding and alignment between lines of business and IT stakeholders. Erika has more than 10 years of experience in technology strategy development and consulting.
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:
