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.
Jeremy Ung is chief technology officer at BlackLine. He has over 20 years of experience in software engineering, spanning development, product management and engineering management. He most recently served as CTO at AI-powered technology financial management software leader Apptio, leading the engineering, operations and global support teams. Before joining Apptio in 2019, he spent three years in leadership positions at Amazon Web Services. Before that, he held various senior program and software management roles at Microsoft and MDA, a satellite and geo-intelligence pioneer.
Join an invitation-only gathering of senior marketing leaders from technology and solution providers for strategic conversations, global perspectives, and meaningful peer connections during Sibos 2026.
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:
