[Collect approvers] [$1000] Expense - Error appears when admin tries to pay a request without having approved it

[lanitochka17]

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Version Number: 1.4.28-0
Reproducible in staging?: Y
Reproducible in production?: Y
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: Applause - Internal Team
Slack conversation:

Action Performed:

Pre-requisite: user must have created a collect workspace and
added a BA. With an employee account, create a request and submit it

1. As the admin on ND, navigate to the workspace chat with the employee
2. Click on the expense to go to report page
3. Click on "Pay with Expensify"

Expected Result:

It should be possible to pay the expense without problems
.

Actual Result:

Admin can not pay the expense without approving it first, an error message appears
Unexpected error, please try again later
An unexpected error ocurred. Please try again later

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Which of our officially supported platforms is this issue occurring on?

• Android: Native
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: Native
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

Bug6348754_1705769462013.bandicam_2024-01-19_18-11-16-153.mp4

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• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0130f77ed31ac8823b
• Upwork Job ID: 1748765068058488832
• Last Price Increase: 2024-04-06

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @mallenexpensify (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~0130f77ed31ac8823b

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @abdulrahuman5196 (External)

[lanitochka17]

We think that this bug might be related to #wave7.
CC @RachCHopkins

[promisingcoder]

Proposal
Problem Statement:
In the application, an admin cannot pay an expense without first approving it. This issue arises during the execution of the confirm function in the MoneyRequestConfirmationList component. The function terminates early if the selectedParticipants array is empty, which is often the case for admin users who are processing the payment but are not participants in the traditional sense.

Root Cause Analysis:
The root cause lies in the conditional check within the confirm function:

if (_.isEmpty(selectedParticipants)) {
return;
}
This condition is designed to prevent the progression of the payment process if no participants are selected. However, in the context of an admin user, this check is too restrictive, as the admin is not a participant but still needs to initiate the payment.

Proposed Solution:
The solution involves modifying the conditional check to accommodate admin users. This can be done by introducing an additional state or prop to indicate whether the current user is an admin. Based on this, the function can bypass the participant check for admins.

Updated Code:

Introduce an Admin Flag: Add a new state or prop to the component to indicate whether the user is an admin. For simplicity, let's assume a prop isAdmin is passed to the component.

Modify the Conditional Check:
Update the condition in the confirm function to bypass the participant check if the user is an admin.

const confirm = useCallback(
(paymentMethod) => {
if (!props.isAdmin && _.isEmpty(selectedParticipants)) {
return;
}

    // ...rest of the function
},
[
    // ...dependencies
],

);
Rationale:
This modification ensures that the payment process is not unnecessarily halted for admin users. By checking the isAdmin flag, the function can appropriately handle scenarios where an admin needs to make a payment without being a participant. This change is targeted and should not cause regressions in other parts of the application, as it specifically addresses the admin scenario. Additionally, it aligns with the general expectation that admins have different permissions and capabilities compared to regular users.

Testing Considerations:
Post-implementation, thorough testing is required to ensure the payment process works correctly for both admin and non-admin users. This includes testing various scenarios and ensuring that the application's behavior remains consistent and as expected.

[abdulrahuman5196]

Will check this issue in my morning.