[Due for payment 2025-06-19] [$250] Incorrect policy audit log messages for adding/updating the payroll code or GL code category fields

[m-natarajan]

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Version Number: 9.1.39-2
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: @trjExpensify
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Expensify Bugs

Action Performed:

1. Navigate to workspace settings and enable categories
2. Go to Categories section and click any category
3. Add any GL or Pay roll code
4. Navigate to LHN and open the workspace chat (upgraded this workspace to the Control plan)
5. Observe the audit log

Expected Result:

When a user adds or updates the Payroll Code or GL Code Category fields:
The audit log should clearly state,The action performed: Add or Update,
The exact field(s) changed: Payroll Code and/or GL Code Category

Actual Result:

The audit log messages currently says enabled the category "XYZ"

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Platforms Tested:

On which of our officially supported platforms was this issue tested:

• Android: App
• Android: mWeb Chrome
• iOS: App
• iOS: mWeb Safari
• iOS: mWeb Chrome
• Windows: Chrome
• MacOS: Chrome / Safari
• MacOS: Desktop

Screenshots/Videos

Add any screenshot/video evidence

Recording.1176.mp4

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• FitseTLT | Contributor | 107314064

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @trjExpensify / @sonialiap

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @sonialiap (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[FitseTLT]

🚨 Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2025-05-02 13:51:55 UTC.

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

Incorrect policy audit log messages for adding/updating the payroll code or GL code category fields

What is the root cause of that problem?

We are not handling gl code and payroll code update specifically here

App/src/libs/ReportActionsUtils.ts

Lines 1974 to 1979 in 113cb3f

	if (action.actionName === CONST.REPORT.ACTIONS.TYPE.POLICY_CHANGE_LOG.UPDATE_CATEGORY && categoryName) {
	return translateLocal('workspaceActions.updateCategory', {
	oldValue: !!oldValue,
	categoryName,
	});
	}

so it will wrongly display the general updateCategory copy

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

We should add a code that will handle gl code/payroll update by creating a new copy and check originalMessage.updatedField and return that specific copy corresponding to the updated field (either GL Code or Payroll Code) before the code that returns updateCategory copy here

App/src/libs/ReportActionsUtils.ts

Lines 1975 to 1979 in 113cb3f

	return translateLocal('workspaceActions.updateCategory', {
	oldValue: !!oldValue,
	categoryName,
	});
	}

The new copys will take categoryName, newValue and oldValue from originalMessage as a param. The exact content of the copy can be decided consulting design team but to be consistent with what the BE is returning it can look like

"updated the category {categoryName} by adding a Payroll Code of {newValue}", for adding a new value
"updated the category {categoryName} by changing the GL Code from {oldValue} to {newValue}" for changing value with oldValue

We can also follow (previously oldValue) format we use here.
We will do this for both payroll code and gl code.

BTW similar problem occur with other category fields other than these two like maxExpenseAmount etc so we can handle them too. If we don't want to translate the update fields text we can use one copy for all updated fields by passing the updatedField as a param (or even mapping to copies we use for the fields in CategorySettingsPage) but otherwise we need to create a separate copies for each.
On a related note we have forgotten to use getWorkspaceCategoryUpdateMessage in getReportName to make the chat thread header title when threads are created with these report actions consistent with the report actions displayed in report screen so we can handle it in the pr.
Alternatively if we want to display what the BE is returning instead of handling the translation we can fallback to the BE reportAction.message whenever there is updatedField in the original message

App/src/libs/ReportActionsUtils.ts

Lines 1974 to 1975 in 113cb3f

	if (action.actionName === CONST.REPORT.ACTIONS.TYPE.POLICY_CHANGE_LOG.UPDATE_CATEGORY && categoryName) {
	return translateLocal('workspaceActions.updateCategory', {

    if (action.actionName === CONST.REPORT.ACTIONS.TYPE.POLICY_CHANGE_LOG.UPDATE_CATEGORY && categoryName && !updatedField) {

What specific scenarios should we cover in automated tests to prevent reintroducing this issue in the future?

If needed we can add a test for getWorkspaceCategoryUpdateMessage to assert that it returns the correct copy for report actions corresponding to category code update Field or mock to have last action of a report to have a report action of the above types and assert the LHN alternateText is equal to the correct value that we will change it to in the PR

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021919735619557116166

[melvin-bot]

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