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.
Chris DeRamus is co-founder and CTO of DivvyCloud.
Jane Larimer is president and chief executive of Nacha, which manages the development, administration and governance of the automated clearing house network. Larimer sets the vision and strategy for the organization to continually advance the ubiquitous ACH Network so that it remains one of the largest, safest and most reliable payment systems in the world. Larimer also works to advance Nacha’s role in creating and furthering broadly adopted payment and financial messaging rules and standards to enable interoperability and reduce friction for providers and users.
Vice President of Product Marketing, Nuxeo
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:
