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.
Robert Graham is the Chief Executive Officer for Poll Everywhere. Prior to his role as CEO, he spent over seven years with Poll Everywhere working his way up from Engineering Growth to Chief Revenue Officer, managing teams devoted to the strategic growth of SaaS within the company. He is a Georgia Tech Computer Science alum.
Krista Krumina is the co-founder of Truesix Co and a writer at DeskTime. In her free time, she's also a freelance journalist whose work has appeared on Insider, Sifted by FT, Thrive Global, and more. She writes (and ghostwrites) about business, productivity, and technologies. Her goal in life? To travel the world, one corner of the Earth at a time.
Joshua Fieldgrove is VP of Servicing Oversight at Clayton
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:
