[CFI] Description Hint Field Requires Required Categories to Display in NewDot

[m-natarajan]

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Version Number: 9.3.5-0
Reproducible in staging?: Y
Reproducible in production?: Y
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @twisterdotcom
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Migrate

Action Performed:

Preconditions:
Workspace is connected to a NetSuite integration
Categories are synced from NetSuite

1. Connect a workspace to NetSuite
2. Navigate to Workspace Settings
3. Go to Categories
4. Click on any of the Category
5. Observe the RHP options

Expected Result:

The Description Hint field should be visible in RHP

Actual Result:

The Description Hint field is not displayed in New Expensify. Displayed only when Require description is enabled in Required fields

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

Screenshots/Videos

Recording.2260.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @sobitneupane

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @johncschuster (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.

[MobileMage]

Proposal

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

When navigating to Workspace Settings > Categories and clicking on any category, the "Description Hint" field is not displayed in the Right Hand Panel (RHP). The field only appears when "Require description" is enabled in the Required Fields settings.

The expected behavior is that the Description Hint field should always be visible in the category settings RHP, regardless of whether "Require description" is enabled. This is because:

1. A workspace admin may want to set a description hint to help guide users, even without making descriptions mandatory
2. The hint is already used in the expense description input field (IOURequestStepDescription.tsx) without checking if descriptions are required

What is the root cause of that problem?

The issue is in /Users/user/Documents/GitHub/App/src/pages/workspace/categories/CategorySettingsPage.tsx at lines 302-313.

The Description Hint menu item is conditionally rendered based on areCommentsRequired:

{areCommentsRequired && (
    <OfflineWithFeedback pendingAction={policyCategory.pendingFields?.commentHint}>
        <MenuItemWithTopDescription
            title={policyCategory?.commentHint}
            description={translate('workspace.rules.categoryRules.descriptionHint')}
            onPress={() => {
                Navigation.navigate(ROUTES.WORKSPACE_CATEGORY_DESCRIPTION_HINT.getRoute(policyID, policyCategory.name));
            }}
            shouldShowRightIcon
        />
    </OfflineWithFeedback>
)}

The areCommentsRequired variable (line 63) checks whether descriptions are mandatory for this category. However, the Description Hint feature should be independent of whether descriptions are required - admins should be able to provide helpful hints to guide expense submission even when descriptions are optional.

Additionally, looking at how the hint is consumed in /Users/user/Documents/GitHub/App/src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepDescription.tsx at line 219:

hint={getDescriptionHint()}

The hint is displayed unconditionally in the expense description input - it just shows if one exists, regardless of areCommentsRequired. This confirms the Description Hint is designed to work independently.

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

The fix is simple - move the Description Hint menu item into the Category Rules section (which is shown when policy?.areRulesEnabled is true) and remove the areCommentsRequired condition.

In src/pages/workspace/categories/CategorySettingsPage.tsx:

1. Remove the Description Hint block from its current location (lines 302-313)
2. Add the Description Hint menu item inside the {!!policy?.areRulesEnabled && (...)} block, placing it after the "Require Fields" item since it's a related rule setting

The Description Hint will then be displayed whenever Category Rules are enabled (consistent with other rule-related settings like Approver, Default Tax Rate, Flag Amounts Over, Require Receipts Over, and Required Fields) without depending on areCommentsRequired.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Keep it outside the Rules section but remove the condition: This would show the Description Hint even when Rules are disabled. However, since Description Hint is conceptually a category rule feature (it appears in workspace.rules.categoryRules.descriptionHint), it makes more sense to group it with other rules.

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