Corporate expense policies vary significantly, and while some are less restrictive than others, there’s always a limit to what can be reimbursed. Emburse surveyed folks involved in the expense reporting process for the craziest and most controversial submissions they encountered in 2022.
My room has
a zipper
$110
Rather than expense $800 for a hotel room (options were limited), one good steward bought a tent to sleep in for the night.
Receipting
hair lines
$200
Profit margins weren’t the only thing a VP wanted to grow when he expensed his monthly dues to a hair restoration club.
Replace what you didn’t break
$74,575
A rental company falsely convinced an employee he had to purchase a car that got totaled in a parking lot before receiving a new one.
Surviving on dorm room cuisine
$45
To endure a COVID-19 quarantine while on business overseas, one traveler stocked up on three cases of ramen noodles for his meals.
How does your organization currently manage expense reporting?
60
19
19
2
Dedicated solution
Manual process
ERP
Homegrown solution
Raccing up repair bills
$700
Nature delayed one business trip when a large raccoon jumped in front of an employee’s car and damaged the engine.
How do you say “second gear” in German?
$4,500
While on business in Europe, a traveler killed his stick-shift rental and got charged for the repairs and the days it took to fix.
Bugging out in
an airport bathroom
$75
After learning the apartment he inspected was mid-treatment for bedbugs, a man turned a new tracksuit and some alcohol wipes into a makeshift delousing kit before flying home.
Doubling your first impression
$180,000
Adding European flair to a company involved with North American auto shows, an employee put two BMWs on his personal card to impress a client.
How effectively does your current process identify out-of-policy expenses?
29
35
31
5
Very well
Good, and getting better
Decent, but needs improvement
Not very well
Dockument your expenses, please
$50,000
Some ideas float better than others, as proven when a Chicago-based team hosted an event for media members aboard a rented boat.
One destination. Different gates.
$15,000
A canceled flight home from a Colorado conference motivated one manager to book alternate travel for 75 employees on different airlines.
Signed, sealed, delayed
$0.90
A pandemic-delayed expense for postage was turned in 15 months after mailing the correspondence by an employee who lives in a $6M house.
The write way
to annoy accounting
$0.49
All the ink at home must have dried up, which led to an employee expensing a single pencil from his local office supply store.
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Learn moreToo good to be untrue
Respondents were also asked to share some of the most legendary and controversial submissions they know of. Would you approve these expenses?
Right-down-the-road warrior
Time is money when you’re in sales, as observed by an approver who received a single short-haul mileage expense of $1.65 after an employee drove to a pitch meeting.
Moving back to the office
Feeling the company was liable for their return to the office costs after working from home, someone requested reimbursement for $10K worth of new office furnishings—and a washer/dryer combo.
Membership has its privileges
Because he couldn’t get into an airport lounge with his corporate card, a man expensed the $500 membership fee to start a new personal card, on which he charged a passenger seat upgrade to gain access.
Sneaking the spouse overseas
Perhaps motivated by the romantic promise of a trip to Paris, one devoted partner submitted an expense for his wife’s $2,200 accompanying airfare.
Survey participant demographics
Emburse collected data for its Craziest Expenses survey in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Organization size
17
62
21
<100 Employees
101–2,500 Employees
2,501+ Employees
Role in expense processing
19
26
22
21
12
Executive
Director
Manager
Staff
Other
Role in expense approval
19
17
24
40
Submitter
Approver
Accountant / Auditor
Combination of above
About Emburse
Emburse is the leader in spend optimization. Our expense, travel management, purchasing and AP, and payments solutions are trusted by over 12 million business professionals.
To learn more about the Craziest Expenses survey and other reports by Emburse, please visit:
https://www.emburse.com/learn
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