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.
Christopher Ewing is the founder and Chief Strategy Officer of One Inc. A long time entrepreneur raised in Sacramento, CA, Christopher has a proven track-record building effective teams and partnerships to deliver innovative solutions to customers.
Christopher began his insurance industry career in 2003 as the President and CEO of Keenan Holdings. He also served as the CTO and General Counsel of Cost-U-Less Insurance Center, growing the company from 32 locations to more than 100. Chris was also the Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Stonewood Insurance Services, Co-Founder and CTO of ClearSide General Insurance Services, and Co-Founder, General Counsel, and Executive VP of GreenPath Insurance Company.
Christopher received his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside, and his Juris Doctor from University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law.
Mark Snyder is the principal consultant and claims subject matter expert at Hi Marley.
He is a proven leader and P&C insurance claims optimization expert with significant experience in quality management program design, insurtech and digital strategy operationalization, operational transformation, project management and training development and delivery.
Mark also has deep claims technical handling, management and auditing knowledge and skills across all major lines of business and select specialty lines.He previously held leadership positions with Ohio Casualty, Liberty Mutual, Athenium Analytics and Aon Inpoint.
Elad Tsur, chief AI officer at Applied Systems, is a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about bridging the gap between technology and business – specifically in insurance and other financial services.
Prior to joining Applied Systems in 2024, he was co-founder and CEO of Planck, where he helped create an AI-based data platform for commercial insurance that enables insurers to grow new and organic business while drastically reducing their loss and expense ratios.
Before launching Planck in 2015, Elad started BlueTail Corporation, which delivered the first comprehensive AI platform for customer relationship management. Acquired by Salesforce.com in 2012, today it is known as Salesforce Einstein.
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:
