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.
Jacob Sattelmair is CEO of Wellframe.com, a firm that provides platforms and apps for health care providers and health plans.
Frank Buytendijk is a Gartner Fellow in Gartner's Data and Analytics group, pioneering the topic of "digital ethics" and "digital society" helping organizations to do the "right thing" with technology and avoid "messing up." Mr. Buytendijk further covers data and analytics.In addition to his responsibilities at Gartner, Mr. Buytendijk is a visiting Fellow at Cranfield University School of Management, and a regular guest lecturer at Warwick Business School. Mr. Buytendijk has a solid history of his work being right on time or becoming relevant one to two years after publication.Examples include ethics/privacy in analytics (2012), embracing complexity (2011), management excellence (2009), behavioral performance management (2008), high-performance organizations (2005), collaborative decision making (2003), enterprise performance management (2002), business activity monitoring (2001) and BI/ERP (1998).
Don Korn is a freelance financial writer with expertise in taxes, tax shelters, investments, real estate, financial planning, retirement planning, estate planning, life and health insurance.
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:
