Expense policies, like the organizations who develop them,
are wildly unique and evolve to reflect shifts in the culture
of spend. Emburse asked for the craziest expenses that
submitters and finance professionals encountered
throughout the year. They did not disappoint.
See where 2021’s best of the worst landed on our scale
between eye rollers and mind blowers.
Speedo
$13.25
Gag gift for a departing coworker to
ensure they went out in style
Long-distance call
$0.14
Short call to check in on a client
…a very short one
White carpets
$11,297
Dress up a tradeshow booth and threw out
the same day when they got too dirty
What the hay?!
$1,250
Due to its (alleged) separation anxiety,
a GM hired care of his horse through PetSitter.com while he was away on business
How does your organization
currently manage expense reporting?
48
25
16
11
Dedicated solution
Manual process
ERP
Homegrown solution
Facelift
$10,000
Categorized as “repair and maintenance” by the company’s owner
Nail
$0.53
An office construction project was missing a nail to be completed…just one
Tattoo removal
$1,000
De-inked an incoming employee’s skin art (we didn’t dare ask where or what) before they started
A wheel deal
$25,000
With the promise of a company car,
a new hire visited a dealership and charged a new ride to his corporate card
Has your organization revised its
T&E policy in response to Covid-19?
50
45
5
NO
YES
I DON’T KNOW
Carpet cleaner
$100
A tray of baked beans headed for a work function spilled in an employee’s car
Grass seed
$85
Repair lawn damage caused by a visiting coworker attending a private dinner party
1960’s railroad carriage
$45,000
Purchased to showcase at an event with the intent to sell afterward
Fill ’er up!
$0.31
In error, an employee topped off their gas tank with a personal card, then submitted the expense report through the mail
What percent of your week was spent in the office over the last three months?
45
55
In-office
Work-from-home
Too good to be untrue
Participants were also asked to share some of the most legendary expense submissions they may have heard about.
Would you have approved these?
Steam away
the stress
During his onboarding for a new position, a man expensed $5,000 in spa treatments for his spouse because she needed the extra support and rest
Worse than a fly in your soup
After seeing a cockroach climb out of her purse at home, an employee expensed $500 for pest control services to spray her house
1000 watts of
bass…and shame
Over two years and piece by piece, an employee expensed $75,000 of home theater system components; he was fired but not asked to repay
Put it on my corpse-rate card
In preparation for an upcoming study, a bioresearch facility employee expensed $15,000 to purchase human cadaver
Survey participant demographics
Emburse collected data for its Craziest Expenses
survey in the fourth quarter of 2021
Organization size
57
25
18
101-999
Employees
<100
Employees
1000+
Employees
Role in expense processing
30
29
27
14
Accountant
Combination
of all
Approver
Submitter
Existence of a written T&E policy
95
5
YES
NO
© EMBURSE 2021
To learn more about the Craziest Expenses survey and other
reports by Emburse, please visit:
https://www.emburse.com/learn