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.
Eric Rosenthal is the Managing Director of the Americas at Rapyd.
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Michele Goetz serves enterprise and data architect professionals. Ms. Goetz is a leading expert on data quality, data integration, metadata management, MDM, and data governance. She helps enterprises leverage data assets more effectively by improving the availability and accuracy of the information that businesses use in processes and analytics.Prior to joining Forrester, Ms. Goetz managed the business intelligence and data management programs at PTC. During her tenure, she developed and led the global consolidation of customer data across multiple CRM platforms to support a single view of the customer and manage enterprise-wide data quality. In addition, she established data governance and data quality teams and programs to support a center of excellence for data management.Ms. Goetz also held an executive position at Trillium Software, a provider of data quality solutions and services, introducing thought leadership and recommendations on how organizations can improve data quality and governance programs. She holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics, with a minor in computer science, from Framingham State College.
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:
