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.
Hilary Richards is a vice president analyst in Gartner's Finance Practice, where she advises senior finance leaders on critical issues facing their organizations and assists them in translating best demonstrated practices into action in their respective teams. She brings these recommendations to life in one-on-one and group interactions with Gartner clients and is a regular presenter at Gartner conferences. Her areas of specialty include finance talent, evolving competencies for financial analysts and accountants, accounting department productivity, and finance department structure.
Arjun Arora leads Strategic Finance for Bloomberg's quantitative investment products business. Previously, he spent nearly a decade in senior leadership roles at Citi.
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:
