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.
Todd Zywicki is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School and affiliated scholar at the International Center for Law & Economics.
Chris Olson co-founded The Media Trust with a goal to transform the internet experience by creating better digital ecosystems to govern assets, connect partners and enable digital risk management. Chris has more than 15 years of experience leading high tech and ad technology start-ups and managing international software development, product and sales teams. Prior to The Media Trust, Chris created an Internet-based transaction system to research, buy and sell media for TV, radio, cable, and online channels. He started his career managing equity and fixed income electronic trading desks for Salomon Brothers, Citibank and Commerzbank AG.
Srividya (Sri) serves Customer Insights Professionals. She leads a team of analysts focusing on helping businesses collect, manage, analyze, and apply customer data to win, serve, and retain customers. Specifically, her team focuses on advanced analytics, predictive analytics, customer analytics, business intelligence, and artificial intelligence.
Previously, Sri was a senior analyst on the Customer Insights team, focusing on customer analytics best practices and technologies, services, and analytical applications that help firms convert customer data into meaningful insights. Sri continues to help marketing clients address their customer analytics needs, map out customer intelligence requirements and strategies, and navigate the analytics technology and services landscape.
Previous Work Experience
Sri has over 10 years' experience in marketing and customer analytics, product management, marketing management, and business analysis on both the client and agency side. Prior to Forrester, she managed digital media measurement and analytics for multiple clients across verticals at Allen & Gerritsen, a Boston-based advertising agency. Previously, she worked at Cognizant, a global provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services managing marketing communications programs. Prior to Cognizant, Sri worked at Sify Technologies — an India-based Internet service provider — managing the consumer broadband product portfolio including planning, executing, and measuring multichannel marketing campaigns.
Education
Srividya holds an M.S. in integrated marketing communications with a specialization in customer and marketing analytics from Northwestern University, Chicago, and an MBA from India.
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:
