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.
Josh Merrill is the cofounder and CEO of Confirm. He was previously Chief Product Officer and second employee at Carta, an equity management platform. He has been building web products since graduating from Carnegie Mellon in 2005.
Graham Gordon joined Sapiens in 2021 as Product & Strategy Director for P&C from LexisNexis Risk where he led several new vehicle data and connected car products. Prior to this Graham was part of the Senior Leadership team as Director of Marketing at telematics specialist, Masternaut (Michelin) where he led several key data and analytics initiatives, including forming much of the early analysis and commercial understanding of the value of driver-behavior in the commercial fleet and consumer car sector. Graham holds a bachelor's degree from Lancaster University, post-graduate qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and more recently completed his master's degree from the University of Cambridge, graduating from the Judge Business School's Executive MBA Program.
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:
