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.
Dave Mariani is chief executive officer at AtScale.
As Sumo Logic’s vice president of security and compliance, George Gerchow brings 18 years of information technology and systems management expertise to the application of IT processes and disciplines. His expertise informs the security, compliance and operational status of complex, heterogeneous, virtual and cloud computing environments. George is one of the original founders of the VMware Center for Policy and Compliance and the coauthor of “Center for Internet Security Quick Start Cloud Infrastructure Benchmark v1.0.0.” He is also a faculty member for IANS, the Institute of Applied Network Security.
Fred Schutt is an associate with the firm’s litigation and insurance practices.
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:
