[Due for payment 2026-11-16] Report page is empty when submitting to employer when there are reports in approve-only WS

@Pujan92

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Version Number: 9.5.19-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #102933
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): jsnoidjosinjdiosj2@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.5 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

User A creates a Control workspace.
User A invites User B to workspace.
User B creates a workspace and make it default workspace.

Go to staging.new.expensify.com
[User B] Create two empty reports in the invited workspace chat.
[User A] Change User B's role to Approve-only in workspace settings > Members.
[User B] Delete the default workspace.
[User B] Go to self DM and create an expense.
[User B] Click Submit to my employer.
[User B] Click Report field on confirm page.

Expected Result:

Report field should be disabled as there is no available report to which expense can be added.

Actual Result:

Report field is enabled and it is empty.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7294666_1792779578906.15.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Svetlana Lazutkina
Bug ID: 7294666

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @Pujan92

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/2f12907547fb1657001a540f9c1191a0a5b57717f68988e65d4cbdbb6d7f30e7

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #102933

@flodnv

@flodnv @Pujan92 you have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you reviewed the offending PR: #102933

@ShridharGoel

@ShridharGoel you have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you authored the offending PR: #102933

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
Fix the issue yourself.

Deploy Blocker Analysis

Causing PR: [Payment due @Pujan92] Add approve-only workspace role (high confidence). This is an edge case in that PR's new feature, not a regression of anything in production.

Root cause: The Report field and the report list count reports differently. The PR added a filter that hides reports in workspaces where the user can't create expenses, but only on the list. The confirm page's Report field still counts the two empty reports, so it shows as enabled and opens an empty list.

Recommendation: Fix forward rather than revert. A revert would remove the whole approve-only feature (49 files) to fix a small gap.

Main fix: In createFilteredPoliciesInfoSelector, skip workspaces where !canCreateExpensesOnPolicy(policy, email). "Submit to my employer" then stops sending approve-only members straight to that workspace's confirm page.
Defensive fix: Move the canCreateExpensesOnPolicy filter from IOURequestEditReportCommon.tsx into useOutstandingReports. The Report field and the list then use the same reports, so the field is disabled when the list would be empty.

Investigation details

All links use commit f0422d2, which includes the PR.

The approve-only workspace is still counted. src/selectors/Policy.ts#L421-L439 checks only shouldShowPolicy and Teachers Unite. After User B deletes their own workspace, the count is 1 and that one workspace is the approve-only one.
The workspace picker is skipped. When the count is 1, src/libs/actions/IOU/StartExpenseFlows.ts#L408-L426 goes straight to that workspace's confirm page. The PR blocked approve-only workspaces in the pickers but not on this shortcut.
The Report field is enabled. src/components/MoneyRequestConfirmationList/sections/ReportField.tsx#L113-L116 enables the field when outstandingReports.length > 1. The hook (src/hooks/useOutstandingReports.ts#L48-L55) doesn't check the role, so it counts both empty reports.
The list is empty. src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestEditReportCommon.tsx#L168-L179 drops reports where canCreateExpensesOnPolicy is false. The PR added this filter, so both reports are hidden.

Other notes

Fix 1 alone fixes the reported steps. With it, the count becomes 0, so "Submit to my employer" creates a new workspace, the same as for a user with no workspace.
Fix 1 also affects Categorize, which uses the same selector. That's arguably correct, since categorizing also creates an expense in the workspace.
Step 2 also means an approve-only member can reach a confirm page for a workspace they can't submit to. I didn't confirm whether the backend rejects that submission.
I checked the other PRs on the Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-10-23. None of them changes this logic.
Both fixes should get unit tests for an approve-only member.

view run

@ShridharGoel

@ShridharGoel Now this issue is 8 days overdue. Are you sure this should be a Daily? Feel free to change it!

@ShridharGoel

@ShridharGoel 8 days overdue is a lot. Should this be a Weekly issue? If so, feel free to change it!

@ShridharGoel

@ShridharGoel 8 days overdue is a lot. Should this be a Weekly issue? If so, feel free to change it!

This will be ready for re-testing after we enable the Approve-only role

@flodnv

@flodnv @Pujan92 @ShridharGoel this issue was created 2 weeks ago. Are we close to a solution? Let's make sure we're treating this as a top priority. Don't hesitate to create a thread in #expensify-open-source to align faster in real time. Thanks!

@ShridharGoel

@ShridharGoel Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

@Pujan92

@Pujan92

The solution for this issue has been 🚀 deployed to production 🚀 in version 9.5.34-1 and is now subject to a 7-day regression period 📆. Here is the list of pull requests that resolve this issue:

[NoQA] Apply approve-only permission checks to missed expense creation paths #104929

If no regressions arise, payment will be issued on 2026-11-16. 🎊

The following checklist (instructions) will need to be completed before the issue can be closed. Please copy/paste the Contributor+ Checklist from here into a new comment on this GH and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]. If no checklist is needed for this issue, you can click: [no checklist button]

@Pujan92

@Pujan92 Eep! 4 days overdue now. Issues have feelings too...

Chrome / v9.5.39-0
Passed

bandicam.2026-11-13.11-34-17-630.mp4

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[Due for payment 2026-11-16] Report page is empty when submitting to employer when there are reports in approve-only WS #104914

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[Due for payment 2026-11-16] Report page is empty when submitting to employer when there are reports in approve-only WS #104914

Description

Action Performed:

Expected Result:

Actual Result:

Workaround:

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Activity

applause-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

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github-actions commented on Oct 23, 2026

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Deploy Blocker Analysis

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melvin-bot commented on Nov 5, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Nov 5, 2026

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ShridharGoel commented on Nov 6, 2026

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melvin-bot commented on Nov 9, 2026

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IuliiaHerets commented on Nov 13, 2026

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