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.
Luke Templin, CPA, vCFO, is a virtual CFO building his second client accounting and advisory line of business for Hancock/Dana CPAs by day, and a consultant helping CPA firms grow as a co-founder of a2advisers.com by night, focusing on modernizing the CPA profession and changing it from a compliance-focused profession to an advisory-focused profession. A graduate of the University of Kansas with a master’s in accounting, Templin lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, two daughters, and dog. He is an avid outdoorsman and loves to cook for his family.
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Stephen Boals develops new strategies, partnerships and evangelizes Ephesoft solutions. He has over 16 years in the intelligent document processing area and has sold, serviced and deployed solutions for Fortune 500 organizations.
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:
