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.
Amit Unde, CTO, Insurance, LTI, leads LTI’s Insurance Solutions Office and Enterprise Architecture Practice in North America. He has almost 20 years of experience working with insurance companies across the globe. He has a blend of technology and insurance domain expertise, and has helped leading carriers, brokers and reinsurance firms in defining their Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy Roadmap. Amit specializes in Commercial Underwriting and Risk Management Solutions, and has been at forefront of leveraging modern technologies such as Location Intelligence and Big Data Analytics, for better risk selection and pricing.
Emil Abedian is a Certified Public Accountant and founder of Anchor Bookkeeping, a service offering affordable yet personalized one-on-one bookkeeping services for small business owners.
Harley Lippman is founder and CEO of Genesis10.
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:
