[Due for payment 2025-07-28] [$250] Expense - Negative sign disappears after moving expense with negative sign to self DM

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.1.70-6
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from TestRail: Exp
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): jsidojnsdoisjoid2893@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Mac 15.5 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.expensify.com
2. Create a report with two expenses with negative amount.
3. Log in to staging.new.expensify.com with the same account.
4. Go to workspace chat.
5. Open the expense report from Step 2.
6. Click More > Delete.
7. Delete the report.
8. Go to self DM and open one of the unreported expenses.
9. The unreported expense does not retain its negative sign in the amount.
10. Open the same unreported expense on Old Dot.
11. On Old Dot, the same unreported expense retains its negative sign in the amount.
12. Go back to workspace chat on ND.
13. Click + > Create report.
14. Click Add expense > Add unreported expense.
15. Select any unreported expense from Step 8.
16. Click Add to report.
17. Open the expense preview.
18. The negative sign in the amount resurfaces after adding the unreported expense to a report.

Expected Result:

In Step 9, after moving expense with negative amount to self DM, the negative sign should be retained.

Actual Result:

In Step 9, after moving expense with negative amount to self DM, the negative sign is not retained.
In Step 11, the same unreported expense shows negative sign on Old Dot, but not on New Dot.
In Step 18, after adding the unreported expense to a report, the negative sign reappears.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6868380_1750766455131.20250624_195220.mp4

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Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021938305495880593613
• Upwork Job ID: 1938305495880593613
• Last Price Increase: 2025-07-03
• Automatic offers:
• thelullabyy | Contributor | 107992969

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @clarajones-expensify

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @clarajones-expensify (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.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021938305495880593613

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @ikevin127 (External)

[thelullabyy]

Proposal

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

In Step 9, after moving expense with negative amount to self DM, the negative sign is not retained.
In Step 11, the same unreported expense shows negative sign on Old Dot, but not on New Dot.
In Step 18, after adding the unreported expense to a report, the negative sign reappears.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The amount of selfDM's transaction has the same pattern with the amount of expense report's transaction

App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts

Line 3973 in 04414ea

amount: getTransactionAmount(transaction, !isEmptyObject(report) && isExpenseReport(report)),

But we always return the positive amount if the transaction is not from expense report or it comes from tracked expense

App/src/libs/TransactionUtils/index.ts

Lines 563 to 658 in 04414ea

	function getAmount(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>, isFromExpenseReport = false, isFromTrackedExpense = false): number {
	// IOU requests cannot have negative values, but they can be stored as negative values, let's return absolute value
	if (!isFromExpenseReport || isFromTrackedExpense) {
	const amount = transaction?.modifiedAmount ?? 0;
	if (amount) {
	return Math.abs(amount);
	}
	return Math.abs(transaction?.amount ?? 0);
	}
	// Expense report case:
	// The amounts are stored using an opposite sign and negative values can be set,
	// we need to return an opposite sign than is saved in the transaction object
	let amount = transaction?.modifiedAmount ?? 0;
	if (amount) {
	return -amount;
	}
	// To avoid -0 being shown, lets only change the sign if the value is other than 0.
	amount = transaction?.amount ?? 0;
	return amount ? -amount : 0;
	}
	/**
	* Return the tax amount field from the transaction.
	*/
	function getTaxAmount(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>, isFromExpenseReport: boolean): number {
	// IOU requests cannot have negative values but they can be stored as negative values, let's return absolute value
	if (!isFromExpenseReport) {
	return Math.abs(transaction?.taxAmount ?? 0);
	}
	// To avoid -0 being shown, lets only change the sign if the value is other than 0.
	const amount = transaction?.taxAmount ?? 0;
	return amount ? -amount : 0;
	}
	/**
	* Return the tax code from the transaction.
	*/
	function getTaxCode(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): string {
	return transaction?.taxCode ?? '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the posted date from the transaction.
	*/
	function getPostedDate(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): string {
	return transaction?.posted ?? '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the formatted posted date from the transaction.
	*/
	function getFormattedPostedDate(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>, dateFormat: string = CONST.DATE.FNS_FORMAT_STRING): string {
	const postedDate = getPostedDate(transaction);
	const parsedDate = parse(postedDate, 'yyyyMMdd', new Date());
	if (isValid(parsedDate)) {
	return DateUtils.formatWithUTCTimeZone(format(parsedDate, 'yyyy-MM-dd'), dateFormat);
	}
	return '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the currency field from the transaction, return the modifiedCurrency if present.
	*/
	function getCurrency(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): string {
	const currency = transaction?.modifiedCurrency ?? '';
	if (currency) {
	return currency;
	}
	return transaction?.currency ?? CONST.CURRENCY.USD;
	}
	/**
	* Return the original currency field from the transaction.
	*/
	function getOriginalCurrency(transaction: Transaction): string {
	return transaction?.originalCurrency ?? '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the absolute value of the original amount field from the transaction.
	*/
	function getOriginalAmount(transaction: Transaction): number {
	const amount = transaction?.originalAmount ?? 0;
	return Math.abs(amount);
	}
	/**
	* Verify if the transaction is expecting the distance to be calculated on the server
	*/
	function isFetchingWaypointsFromServer(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): boolean {
	return !!transaction?.pendingFields?.waypoints;
	}

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

For the tracked expense, we should return the amount with the same pattern as the expense report's transaction. We should update this condition to

if (!isFromExpenseReport && !isFromTrackedExpense) {

App/src/libs/TransactionUtils/index.ts

Lines 563 to 658 in 04414ea

	function getAmount(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>, isFromExpenseReport = false, isFromTrackedExpense = false): number {
	// IOU requests cannot have negative values, but they can be stored as negative values, let's return absolute value
	if (!isFromExpenseReport || isFromTrackedExpense) {
	const amount = transaction?.modifiedAmount ?? 0;
	if (amount) {
	return Math.abs(amount);
	}
	return Math.abs(transaction?.amount ?? 0);
	}
	// Expense report case:
	// The amounts are stored using an opposite sign and negative values can be set,
	// we need to return an opposite sign than is saved in the transaction object
	let amount = transaction?.modifiedAmount ?? 0;
	if (amount) {
	return -amount;
	}
	// To avoid -0 being shown, lets only change the sign if the value is other than 0.
	amount = transaction?.amount ?? 0;
	return amount ? -amount : 0;
	}
	/**
	* Return the tax amount field from the transaction.
	*/
	function getTaxAmount(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>, isFromExpenseReport: boolean): number {
	// IOU requests cannot have negative values but they can be stored as negative values, let's return absolute value
	if (!isFromExpenseReport) {
	return Math.abs(transaction?.taxAmount ?? 0);
	}
	// To avoid -0 being shown, lets only change the sign if the value is other than 0.
	const amount = transaction?.taxAmount ?? 0;
	return amount ? -amount : 0;
	}
	/**
	* Return the tax code from the transaction.
	*/
	function getTaxCode(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): string {
	return transaction?.taxCode ?? '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the posted date from the transaction.
	*/
	function getPostedDate(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): string {
	return transaction?.posted ?? '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the formatted posted date from the transaction.
	*/
	function getFormattedPostedDate(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>, dateFormat: string = CONST.DATE.FNS_FORMAT_STRING): string {
	const postedDate = getPostedDate(transaction);
	const parsedDate = parse(postedDate, 'yyyyMMdd', new Date());
	if (isValid(parsedDate)) {
	return DateUtils.formatWithUTCTimeZone(format(parsedDate, 'yyyy-MM-dd'), dateFormat);
	}
	return '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the currency field from the transaction, return the modifiedCurrency if present.
	*/
	function getCurrency(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): string {
	const currency = transaction?.modifiedCurrency ?? '';
	if (currency) {
	return currency;
	}
	return transaction?.currency ?? CONST.CURRENCY.USD;
	}
	/**
	* Return the original currency field from the transaction.
	*/
	function getOriginalCurrency(transaction: Transaction): string {
	return transaction?.originalCurrency ?? '';
	}
	/**
	* Return the absolute value of the original amount field from the transaction.
	*/
	function getOriginalAmount(transaction: Transaction): number {
	const amount = transaction?.originalAmount ?? 0;
	return Math.abs(amount);
	}
	/**
	* Verify if the transaction is expecting the distance to be calculated on the server
	*/
	function isFetchingWaypointsFromServer(transaction: OnyxInputOrEntry<Transaction>): boolean {
	return !!transaction?.pendingFields?.waypoints;
	}

Because we can check the unreported transaction via transaction.reportID, I suggest we can remove isFromTrackedExpense param and check this internally in getAmount function

const isFromTrackedExpense = transaction?.reportID === CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID;

If we still want to keep this parameter, we should pass this parameter when we get the amount here and other places that we want to get the real amount instead of a positive amount

amount: getTransactionAmount(transaction, !isEmptyObject(report) && isExpenseReport(report), transaction?.reportID === CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID), 

App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts

Line 3973 in 04414ea

amount: getTransactionAmount(transaction, !isEmptyObject(report) && isExpenseReport(report)),

const isUnReportedExpense = transaction?.reportID === CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID;
updatedTransaction.modifiedAmount = isFromExpenseReport || isUnReportedExpense ? -transactionChanges.amount : transactionChanges.amount;

App/src/libs/TransactionUtils/index.ts

Lines 410 to 414 in f660f73

	if (Object.hasOwn(transactionChanges, 'amount') && typeof transactionChanges.amount === 'number') {
	updatedTransaction.modifiedAmount = isFromExpenseReport ? -transactionChanges.amount : transactionChanges.amount;
	shouldStopSmartscan = true;
	}
	if (Object.hasOwn(transactionChanges, 'currency')) {

const updatedAmount = isFromExpenseReport || isUnReportedExpense ? -amount : amount; 

App/src/libs/TransactionUtils/index.ts

Line 479 in f660f73

const updatedAmount = isFromExpenseReport ? -amount : amount;

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

Update getAmount unit test to verify that this function returns the correct amount for unreported transaction.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

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