Expense - Set the category system message is shown for IOU when no category row.

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: V9.3.34-0
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): dreamnitethedragon+yydyd373@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Redminote 10S Android 13
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Launch app
2. Create workspace
3. Open 1:1 chat and create an iou entering amount
4. Open workspace chat and create a manual expense entering merchant
5. Go to reports - expenses
6. Select both expenses - edit multiple
7. Select a category and save
8. Note IOU preview showing no category
9. Open the IOU and note no category row is shown but set the category system message is shown below.

Expected Result:

Set the category system message must not be shown for IOU when it doesn't has category row.

Actual Result:

Set the category system message is shown for IOU when it doesn't has category row.

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 @joekaufmanexpensify (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: ROLL FORWARD

The bug is cosmetic and affects a new feature (bulk edit) that does not exist in production. A fix should filter out fields that are not applicable to IOUs before creating system messages. Reverting would remove the entire bulk edit feature.

Labels: No label changes needed - keeping DeployBlockerCash as this is a Frontend bug

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

PR #82948 introduced the bulk edit multiple expenses feature. The bug report shows that when bulk editing expenses including an IOU (1:1 chat money request), a "set the category" system message is created even though IOUs do not display a category row in their UI.

Verification

The PR modifies:

• src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts - Added updateMultipleMoneyRequests function
• src/components/ReportActionItem/MoneyRequestView.tsx - Contains logic for when to show category field
• Multiple pages for bulk editing expenses

In MoneyRequestView.tsx lines 395-397:

const shouldShowCategory =
    (isPolicyExpenseChat && (categoryForDisplay || hasEnabledOptions(policyCategories ?? {}))) ||
    (isExpenseUnreported && (!policyForMovingExpenses || hasEnabledOptions(policyCategories ?? {})));

This shows that categories are only shown for:

1. Policy expense chats (workspace chats), OR
2. Unreported expenses

IOUs in 1:1 chats are neither, so shouldShowCategory would be false.

Root Cause

The updateMultipleMoneyRequests function in src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts uses canEditFieldOfMoneyRequest to determine which fields can be updated (around line 14041):

if (changes.category !== undefined && canEditField(CONST.EDIT_REQUEST_FIELD.CATEGORY)) {
    transactionChanges.category = changes.category;
}

The problem is that canEditFieldOfMoneyRequest checks whether the field CAN be edited based on permissions, but NOT whether the field SHOULD be visible for that transaction type. For category, it returns true for any editable money request (line 4914 in ReportUtils.ts), regardless of whether it's an IOU or expense report.

When bulk editing a mix of expenses and IOUs, the category is applied to all selected transactions including IOUs, creating a system message via buildOptimisticModifiedExpenseReportAction even though the IOU never shows a category field in its UI.

Fix Needed

The bulk edit logic should check whether fields are applicable to each transaction type before:

1. Including them in transactionChanges, OR
2. Creating the modified expense system message

For IOUs, category/tag/billable/reimbursable fields should be filtered out since they don't appear in the IOU UI.