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.
Anish Michael is the CEO of Firmspace, which offers private office space for professionals and executives. With locations in Austin, Houston, Denver, and Atlanta, Firmspace offers secure and sound-masking offices, white-glove client service, five-star amenities, best-in-class technology, and professionally trained staff.
Sathyanarayanan (Sathya) Sethuraman is the director of UiPath’s global insurance and financial services practice. With more than 20 years’ experience, Sathya has become a trusted advisor to Fortune 100 global insurance and financial services enterprises and has led large-scale digital transformation initiatives. At UiPath, Sathya is responsible for building industry solutions for intelligent process automation leveraging UiPath’s platform and the UiPath alliance ecosystem.
Michael Sellai is a partner in BPM’s Managed IT Services practice, where he helps clients manage, maintain and upgrade their information technology systems. In his nearly 20 years of IT experience, he has among other notable projects helped clients with as many as 300 employees automate the onboarding of employee computers and application delivery.
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:
