[Due for payment 2026-02-19] Expense - Expense status not immediately updated after WS owner cancel the payment

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: v9.3.16-3
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #81223
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): poipio514+owner3@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Pull Request QA execution
Device used: Windows 11 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Preconditions:

• Prepare 3 accounts (User A, USer B, and User C)
• As user A, create a new workspace

Steps

1. (User A) invite user B and user C to the workspace
2. (User A) navigate to workflow in workspace setting, set the User C as approver of user B's expenses)
3. (User B) create and submit an expense to the workspace
4. (User C) approve the User B's expense in the workspace
5. (User A) Pay the user B's expense using "Mark as paid"
6. (User A) Open the user B's expense detail -> click More -> click Cancel Payment
7. (User B) Open the expense details
8. (User C) Open the user B's expense details

Expected Result:

• in step 7 and 8, the expense report status should be updated immediately with "Wating for User A to pay expense" next step

Actual Result:

• in step 7, the expense report status not updated immediately, it still stated as "Waiting for approver to approve expense"
• in step 8, the expense report status not updated immediately, it still stated as "No further action required!"

those are only updated if user refreshes the page

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

1.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @trjExpensify

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #81223

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @trjExpensify (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: #81223 - "Add messageKey handling as fallback" by @ishpaul777 (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #81223 should be reverted. The PR introduced a logic error that causes next step updates from the backend to not display correctly.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash (App deploy blocked), DeployBlocker should be removed if present (this is a frontend issue)

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

PR #81223 was merged on 2026-02-06 and modified the MoneyReportHeaderStatusBar component to support both the new messageKey format and the deprecated message array format. However, it introduced a critical ordering bug.

The component now checks formats in this order:

1. First: Check if deprecated format exists (message array)
2. Fallback: Check if new format exists (messageKey)

This is problematic because:

• When cancelPayment is called, it optimistically updates BOTH formats locally
• When the backend responds via Pusher, it only sends the NEW format (report.nextStep with messageKey)
• The deprecated format (ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.NEXT_STEP) is NOT updated by Pusher
• So the component keeps showing the OLD cached deprecated format instead of the new one from the backend

Verification

1. The affected file is /home/runner/_work/App/App/src/components/MoneyReportHeaderStatusBar.tsx
2. PR Add messageKey handling as fallback #81223 modified this file on lines 33-34 and 55-71
3. The PR explicitly states it adds "backward compatibility with the deprecated message array format"
4. The bug only appears on staging (where PR Add messageKey handling as fallback #81223 is deployed) and NOT on production (confirming the PR is the cause)

Root Cause

The type guard isDeprecatedFormatNextStep (lines 33-34) checks if the message array exists and has content. When this returns true, the component uses the deprecated format and never checks the new format.

In the cancelPayment flow:

1. Line 11351 of src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts: Sets nextStep: optimisticNextStep (new format) on the report
2. Line 11359-11363: Also updates ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.NEXT_STEP (deprecated format)
3. Optimistically, both are updated, so the UI shows correctly
4. When the API responds, it updates report.nextStep (new format) but NOT the deprecated collection
5. The component still has the old deprecated format cached, so it displays stale data
6. A page refresh clears the deprecated format cache, forcing the component to use the new format

The fix requires either:

• Reverting PR Add messageKey handling as fallback #81223 (recommended)
• OR modifying the logic to prefer report.nextStep (new format) over the deprecated format
• OR ensuring the backend always updates both formats (backend change, not suitable for quick fix)