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.
Slava Orekoff, co-founder and CEO of Numica, is a serial entrepreneur and global executive. He ran a $500 million P&L and spent over a decade at SAP, the world's largest enterprise software company, rising to senior vice president. He first built accounting software at the age of 17 and now brings more than 25 years of experience across business, accounting and technology. He holds an executive MBA from Stanford GSB and master's degrees in physics and economics, and is a mentor at the Stanford Venture Studio.
Nilmini Rubin is the chief policy officer at Hedera.
Jackson Fregeau is the CEO and co-founder of Quandri, the AI platform for insurance operations, serving hundreds of brokerages and agencies across North America. He co-founded the company in 2021 with his brother after seeing firsthand how the data-intensive, manual work embedded in agency operations was defining the ceiling on what the industry could deliver. Quandri pairs broker expertise with insurance-native AI speed and intelligence to create a new operating model that increases capacity, strengthens client relationships, and enables teams to operate more efficiently at scale.
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:
