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.
Hugh Allen has been an innovation and agile leader in the insurance industry for 20+ years. In his current role as Principal Product Strategist at Hi Marley, Hugh brings a wide range of insurance experience with expertise in Property and Casualty claims, underwriting, lead acquisition, and customer retention. Prior to Hi Marley, Hugh led innovation at MAPFRE Insurance, customer experience at VERTI insurance, and was a licensed agent in Massachusetts. He is passionate about demonstrating and expanding Hi Marley's value within complex claims, service and sales use cases while cultivating network collaborations for our carrier partners to reduce process cycle time and increase customer satisfaction.
Scott Weller is CTO and co-founder at EnFi, an AI-driven platform for assessing and monitoring credit risk. Previously, Scott served as the co-founder and CTO of SessionM, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2019.
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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:
