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.
Concetta Yates is vice president of customer strategy and industry solutions at SS&C Blue Prism. She was formerly a systems engineer at Cisco, senior principal product strategy manager at Oracle and a director at VMware and Cohesity.
Amitabh Kant is the G20 Sherpa of India during its presidency year. He was CEO, NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) — the Government of India's premier policy think tank. Prior to that, he was secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion.
Mary Ellen Iskenderian is president and CEO of Women's World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving low-income women in the developing world access to the financial tools and resources they require to achieve security and prosperity. She is also the president and CEO of Women's World Banking Asset Management, which invests in growing businesses with innovative solutions that enable women to achieve economic empowerment.
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:
