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.
Abhishek Shah, Founder and CEO of Testlify. Under his leadership, Testlify has become a pioneer in leveraging AI for talent assessment, emphasizing the synergy between technology and human insights. His commitment to ethical AI practices and passion for nurturing talent positions him as a thought leader, especially amidst new compliances like the New York AI law.
Eric Woodward is the senior advisor to Socure.
Socure provides digital identity verification and identity fraud prevention. Founded in 2012, the company's mission is to verify 100% of good identities in real time for customers including financial institutions, government agencies and enterprises across all industries.
Prior to Socure, Woodward was engaged in more than a dozen advisory roles — from advising public and private CEOs to senior executives to private equity firms — for digital identity, payments risk and data infrastructure opportunities. Before these advisory positions, Woodward was the group president of Early Warning, a financial institution data consortium, and the parent company of Zelle. During his time at Early Warning, he led the risk services business and initiated the build-out of Zelle's real-time fraud and risk capabilities. Prior to that role, he led the strategy and M&A group at Early Warning.
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:
