58% of CFOs have reported a significant rise in bizarre expenses
A staggering 58% of chief financial officers have reported a significant rise in bizarre employee expense requests this year.
Research from Robert Half found that staff are becoming ever bolder in submitting strange and audacious expense reports to HR – citing everything from children’s toys to lawnmowers.
The top ten most bizarre employee expenses claims were:
- Trip to the Caribbean
- Carnival costume
- Hockey equipment
- Ice cream mixer
- Live octopus – for a pet, not for food
- Children’s toys
- Lawnmower
- Hot air balloon rental
- Popcorn maker
- Cowboy boots
A previous report from 2017 raised the question should HR be worried about expenses fraud? After analyzing over 4,000 employee expense reports globally, webexpenses found that almost half of workers said they had exaggerated a mileage claim, whilst 17% admitted to claiming back food expenses for family members.
Ryan Corlett, ebexpenses general manager for APAC and North America, added: “The most prominent area being exaggerating mileage claims, this could be a result of employees feeling it’s completely innocent just rounding up mileage and with a manual process it’s a lot harder to identify.
“Thirty-one per cent of employees surveyed said there were a lack of adequate checks to keep fraud under control at their current place of work, this ultimately allows fraud to continue ticking on and the longer employees get away with it, the more accepted it becomes, and the less guilty they feel.”
How do you deal with outlandish expenses in your organization? Tell us in the comments.
