Expense - "Missing Category" error message appears after bulk editing unreported expenses.

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: 9.3.34.0
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: #82948
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): ibellicotest+2250@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Motorola MotoG60 / Android 12 (Hybrid app) - Windows 11 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Prerequisite: Account has Self DM.

1. Open the Expensify app.
2. Navigate to Self DM.
3. Create two manual expenses without category.
4. Navigate to "Reports" > "Expenses"
5. Select both expenses, tap on dropdown menu and select "Edit Multiple"
6. Edit some of the available fields (For example: Merchant and description), but leave "Category" field unedited.
7. Save the editions.
8. Note that a "Missing Category" error, appears on expenses after the editions are applied.

Expected Result:

"Missing Category" error shouldn´t be visible on unreported expenses.

Actual Result:

"Missing Category" error, appears on unreported expenses after editing other fields and leaving "Category" unedited.

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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[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #82948

[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: #82948 - "Reapply "Feat: bulk edit multiple"" by @pasyukevich (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #82948 introduces bulk edit functionality but has a critical bug in how it handles unreported expenses from Self DMs. The PR should be reverted to unblock the deploy.

Labels: No label changes needed - keeping DeployBlockerCash as this is a frontend bug affecting the App

Detailed Analysis

Evidence

The issue occurs when bulk editing unreported expenses that were created in a Self DM:

1. User creates expenses in Self DM without category
2. Views them in Reports > Expenses (unreported expenses view)
3. Bulk edits other fields (merchant, description) but leaves category unchanged
4. "Missing Category" error incorrectly appears

PR #82948 introduced the updateMultipleMoneyRequests function which performs bulk edits. The issue is reproducible only in staging where this PR is deployed, and the issue description explicitly links to this PR.

Verification

I verified that PR #82948 modifies src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts, which contains the bulk edit logic. The changes include:

• New updateMultipleMoneyRequests function (line 13979+)
• New violation calculation logic for bulk edits

Root Cause

The bug is in /home/runner/_work/App/App/src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts at line 14156:

ViolationsUtils.getViolationsOnyxData(
    updatedTransaction,
    optimisticViolations,
    policy,
    policyTagList,
    policyCategories ?? {},
    hasDependentTags(policy, policyTagList),
    isInvoiceReportReportUtils(iouReport),
    isSelfDM(iouReport),  // <-- LINE 14156: This is the problem
    iouReport,
    isFromExpenseReport,
)

The Problem:

• Unreported expenses have transaction.reportID = "0" (CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID)
• At line 13997, iouReport = reports?.["report_0"] which is undefined (no report exists with ID "0")
• isSelfDM(undefined) returns false
• getViolationsOnyxData in ViolationsUtils.ts (line 385-386) then adds a "missingCategory" violation because:
  • The policy requires categories
  • Category is not set
  • It thinks its NOT a Self DM (because isSelfDM param is false)

Why This Matters:
Self DM expenses should NOT show "missing category" violations even if the policy requires categories. The code loses the Self DM context for unreported expenses, incorrectly applying violation rules.

Technical Details

The violation logic in /home/runner/_work/App/App/src/libs/Violations/ViolationsUtils.ts (lines 384-387) states:

// Add missingCategory violation if category is required and not set
if (!hasMissingCategoryViolation && policyRequiresCategories && !categoryKey && !isSelfDM) {
    newTransactionViolations.push({name: missingCategory, type: CONST.VIOLATION_TYPES.VIOLATION, showInReview: true});
}

The !isSelfDM check should prevent this violation for Self DM expenses, but it fails because the Self DM context is lost for unreported expenses.