Merchant page opens after selecting workspace chat when submitting distance expense

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.3.7-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #76595
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): jsiodjosjdnisojso@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.1 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to self DM.
3. Create a manual or map distance expense.
4. Click Submit it to someone.
5. Select workspace chat.

Expected Result:

Confirm page will open.

Actual Result:

Merchant page opens when it is a distance expense.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7055985_1769121854430.3.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #76595

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @greg-schroeder (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.

[github-actions]

👋 Friendly reminder that deploy blockers are time-sensitive ⏱ issues! Check out the open `StagingDeployCash` deploy checklist to see the list of PRs included in this release, then work quickly to do one of the following:

1. Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
2. Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
3. Fix the issue yourself.

[OSBotify]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #76595 - "Update create transaction Manual flow to ask for merchant after asking for amount" by @nkdengineer (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

This PR introduced a critical logic error in the participant selection flow. When submitting distance expenses to a workspace chat, the code incorrectly navigates to the Merchant page instead of the Confirmation page. Distance expenses should skip the merchant step entirely.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash (App deploy blocked), removing DeployBlocker (not a backend issue)

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

The bug is reproducible on staging with version 9.3.7-0, which includes PR #76595. The issue report states:

• Create a distance expense (manual or map)
• Click "Submit it to someone"
• Select workspace chat
• Expected: Confirmation page opens
• Actual: Merchant page opens

PR #76595 was merged on 2026-01-22 at 16:18:30Z and modifies the participant selection flow to add merchant step for manual expenses.

Verification

The PR modifies src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepParticipants.tsx, specifically the navigation logic after participants are selected.

Root cause identified in lines 387-398:

let route: Route = iouConfirmationPageRoute;

if (isCategorizing) {
    ROUTES.MONEY_REQUEST_STEP_CATEGORY.getRoute(action, iouType, initialTransactionID, selectedReportID.current || reportID, iouConfirmationPageRoute);
} else {
    route = ROUTES.MONEY_REQUEST_STEP_MERCHANT.getRoute(
        action,
        iouType === CONST.IOU.TYPE.CREATE || iouType === CONST.IOU.TYPE.TRACK ? CONST.IOU.TYPE.SUBMIT : iouType,
        initialTransactionID,
        newReportID,
    );
}

Root Cause

Logic error:

1. Line 390 calls ROUTES.MONEY_REQUEST_STEP_CATEGORY.getRoute(...) but does not assign the result to the route variable
2. Lines 391-398 in the else block unconditionally set route to the Merchant page, regardless of whether merchant is required

The code at line 375 correctly determines that merchant is only required for manual expenses:

const isMerchantRequired = !!firstParticipant?.isPolicyExpenseChat && isMerchantMissing(initialTransaction) && iouRequestType === CONST.IOU.REQUEST_TYPE.MANUAL;

However, the subsequent navigation logic ignores this check and always routes to the Merchant page when not categorizing. For distance expenses (REQUEST_TYPE.DISTANCE or REQUEST_TYPE.DISTANCE_MAP), isMerchantRequired would be false, but the user still gets sent to the Merchant page incorrectly.

The conditional logic should check isMerchantRequired before deciding whether to route to the Merchant step or Confirmation step.