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.
Aaron Fine is a partner and head of Oliver Wyman’s retail and business banking practice in the Americas.
Todd Waletzki joined BenefitMall in March, 2015 as the President of the Payroll Division. Todd brings more than 25 years of finance and payroll related experience to the organization and is responsible for maintaining the excellence of payroll operations for BenefitMall. Todd previously held the role as chief operating officer of CompuPay (now BenefitMall) from 2010 to 2012 , where he was responsible for all payroll operational functions.
Todd received his Bachelor of Science in economics from Bemidji State University, and his Master of Science in Economics from Southern Illinois University. He has previously served as a College Instructor at Webster University and Southern Illinois University. Todd and his family currently resides in Dallas.
Nadya Knysh is a managing director at a1qa, which is a software testing provider helping clients including Fortune 500 companies release high-quality solutions. Nadya has a Master’s Degree in informatics, management and modeling and is a certified scrum master. Nadya strives to transfer the knowledge on the significance of QA processes for improving overall quality of the products and eliminating a financial loss due to failures detected.
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:
