[$500] Category Names Display HTML Entities Instead of Symbols

[m-natarajan]

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email contributors@expensify.com to request to join our Slack channel!

---

Version Number:
Reproducible in staging?: Needs Reproduction
Reproducible in production?: Needs Reproduction
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: @jamesdeanexpensify
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Migrate

Action Performed:

1. Create a category with an ampersand in its name (e.g., "Accounting & Legal")
2. Create an expense with category as "Accounting & Legal"
3. Open the report to view the details

Expected Result:

Category name should display as Accounting & Legal.

Actual Result:

Category name displays as Accounting &amp Legal.

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

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021965483904578257116
• Upwork Job ID: 1965483904578257116
• Last Price Increase: 2025-10-14
• Automatic offers:
• NJ-2020 | Contributor | 109161941

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @heyjennahay

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @aldo-expensify

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @heyjennahay (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]

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

[heyjennahay]

Ok so I'm struggling to reproduce this.

I have:

1. Created a new category in NewDot and created an expense and the category is fine
2. Created a new category in OldDot and created an expense and the category is fine
3. Downloaded their categories in OldDot, imported them into a new workspace in OldDot and they appear fine in both ND and OD

[heyjennahay]

That said @puneetlath did manage to identify that the character issues were saved in the category key. So it looks like the fix needs to be to handle special characters in the category key in NewDot.

Example from the customer's account:

In OldDot where the category name displays correctly in the UI but not in the category key

Then the categories don't display correctly in NewDot:

Then contrast this with my own account where I loaded the customer's categories into a new workspace and the category key is correct and therefore the name displays correctly in the NewDot UI:

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021965483904578257116