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.
Jim Paolino is CEO of LodeStar Software Solutions, based in Hoboken, N.J.
As the Director of Project Management for Firm Management (FM) at Wolters Kluwer, Mark focuses on the vision and strategy of all FM products and delivering customer and shareholder outcomes within the FM solutions set. Mark has extensive experience within both the Fortune 1000 and large public accounting firm spaces. He is a frequent speaker on business process management and workflow advisory consulting, tax and accounting outsourcing, and productivity enablement software deployments.
Tony Klimas is a partner and president of Horváth US. He was previously a principal and leader of the global finance practice at Ernst & Young LLP.
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:
