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.
Yolanda D. McGill joined Zest AI in 2023 as its Vice President, Policy and Government Affairs, bringing her extensive experience at the intersection of advocacy, research, government, and the private sector to achieve common policy goals. Immediately prior to joining Zest AI, Yolanda was leading the regulatory initiatives on credit cards, payday and small dollar lending, marketplace lending, and UDAAP as a supervising attorney in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Regulations.
Randy Johnston is the CEO and founder, EVP of NMGI and K2 Enterprises
David Dickson is vice president of Sage AI and a Sage Technical Fellow, leading artificial intelligence teams across product delivery, research and machine learning operations. As the technical leader of the AI division since its inception, he grew Sage AI from an initial idea to a world-class team of AI practitioners. Prior to being acquired by Sage, he led engineering and data science for Compass, an analytics startup based in San Francisco. He holds a software engineering and psychology degree from the University of Melbourne, graduating with honors.
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:
