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.
Dustin Yoder is the founder and CEO of Sureify, Inc., a software as a service (SaaS) company whose mission is to modernize the life insurance and annuity industry by helping companies service, engage, and sell to their customers with one enterprise product suite.
Jess Vento is the senior director of solution engineering, education and support at Crunchafi. With an extensive accounting background, she has led large teams in real estate, managed software transitions and educated nonaccountants on financial concepts.
Mike DeKock is founder and CEO of MJD Advisors, a compliance company fighting the mindset that compliance is complicated by offering simple, exciting and straightforward solutions to complex challenges.
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:
