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.
Alicia McKnight is a principal in the consulting group at Crowe. She specializes in governance, risk and compliance programs and technology-enabled business initiatives. She has experience providing GRC project management, advisory, solution design and software design services.
Michael Lucas is a principal in the consulting group at Crowe. He has spent his career providing cybersecurity, privacy and third-party risk management services and solving challenges on these topics for regulated industries, focusing on large global organizations.
Tracey Orman is the health and wellness administrator at Businessolver. She is a certified health coach and has been in the industry for 36 years. Her passions around employee wellbeing are in her daily work but also in her personal life where she strives to remain healthy and active for her four grandkids and counting.
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:
