We’ve all heard of questionable employee expenses.

Especially as 500 employees are reportedly caught stealing from their employer every month. And in 2023, cases of fraudulent conduct increased by 38%. It's suspected that the bleak financial landscape and tough economic conditions have a lot to do with employees embellishing their expenses to boost their income.

In 2023, HR technology provider BrightHR had some particularly interesting expenses submitted using their software utilised by 100,000 businesses worldwide and more than 1.3 million employees. Some of which have left us scratching our heads, stifling our laughter, and marvelling at the gall of some employees out there.

Here are the top five most bizarre expenses of last year as recorded by BrightHR’s expense tracking app...

Wigging out in the workplace: We’ve seen expenses claimed for ‘wigs’ – a bald move... leaving us wondering if a disguise was in order for an undercover project…
The owl-handling hoot: A curious claim surfaced for a carrying case for an owl. A claim submitted by a Hogwarts professor, perhaps? This claim was enough to ruffle a few feathers and leave us with a few questions. Maybe a company mascot or bring your pet to work day? Hoo doesn’t love a mystery!
The mysterious “Keith”: Among the intriguing entries was an expense simply listed as “Keith”. Which leaves us to wonder, who is this elusive Keith? A consultant, a project code name perhaps?
Cat litter conundrum: A feline enthusiast’s expense report included cat litter, prompting us to ponder whether office cats are a rising trend, or if one employee was just kitten around.
Going the extra mile: One expense recorded a whopping mileage claim of 132,640 miles, equating to £51.12 billion. That’s FIVE times around the whole world! We *think* this might have been a typo, and needless to say, this expense was declined.

Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, says, “The business community is a very diverse one, and these mind-boggling expenses we’ve seen submitted to our app certainly show this.

“With one in five expense reports containing errors or missing information, business owners will no doubt be concerned as to the impact of fraudulent and incorrect expenses. And it’s little wonder why, as recent findings suggest that businesses are losing over £2bn in employee expense fraud.

“We’ve seen high profile cases in the news of late, like the Citibank employer who raised flags last year when he claimed for two sandwiches and two coffees, insisting they were both for his lunch. On further investigation, he admitted the second sandwich and coffee was for his wife, leading to his dismissal which was upheld.

“Cases like this highlight the importance of implementing robust policies that outline what is and isn’t acceptable, that are circulated to all staff for their understanding. Additionally, all procedures should be followed properly, and to support with this, moving away from paper-based processes to a centralised software to manage expenses is recommended.”

Notes:

Refer to Bright Rewind: Your 2023 Wrapped for more insights into last year’s expense reports.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240208366541/en/

Alexandra Poole
Global Senior Manager of PR, Content & Social Media
alexandra.poole@brighthr.com
+44 7977 744418

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