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.
Pedro Suplicy is Director of the Financial Services AI Studio at Globant, where he leads strategic advisory and technology transformation initiatives for financial services and insurance organizations. He has held senior leadership roles at NTT DATA and Accenture and brings over two decades of experience driving strategy, performance improvement, and large-scale transformation. He is based in New York City.
Leah Price serves as vice president of the Tinman AI Platform at Better. Previously, she led the Office of Fintech and the Office of the Chief AI Officer at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Earlier in her career, Leah held leadership roles at Figure Technologies and at Fannie Mae.
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:
