Fix wrong next action message, missing Pay button after bypassing approver & approving offline

[fahimj]

Explanation of Change

This PR fixes an issue where admins who bypassed approvers using "Change approver" → "Bypass approvers" would see incorrect next step messages and missing Pay buttons when approving expense reports offline.

The root cause was that the getApprovalChain function in ReportUtils.ts calculated approval chains based on policy workflows, ignoring the current report state where an admin had become the manager by bypassing approvers. This caused isLastApprover to return false instead of true, leading to incorrect status predictions.

The fix adds a check at the beginning of getApprovalChain to detect when the current user is the manager (indicating they bypassed approvers) and returns an approval chain containing only them, ensuring correct approval flow logic.

Fixed Issues

$ #69249
#72726
#72742
PROPOSAL: #69249 (comment)

Tests

1. Create a test account with admin privileges on a workspace
2. Create an expense report as a regular employee and submit it
3. As an admin, go to the expense report and select "Change approver" → "Bypass approvers"
4. Verify the admin becomes the manager of the report (managerID should match admin's accountID)
5. Go offline (disconnect internet or use airplane mode)
6. As the admin, approve the expense report
7. Verify the next step message shows "Waiting for an admin to pay expense(s)" (not "Waiting for approver to approve expense(s)")
8. Verify the Pay button appears and is functional
9. Test on a regular approval flow (without bypassing) to ensure no regression
10. Verify normal approval chain still works when current user is not the manager

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

1. Follow the main test steps above while offline
2. Verify the correct next step message appears when approving while offline
3. Verify the Pay button is visible and functional while offline
4. Test reconnecting to internet and ensure the approval status syncs correctly

QA Steps

Same as tests above. Additional QA considerations:

• Test with multiple approvers in the chain before bypassing

• Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

• I linked the correct issue in the ### Fixed Issues section above
• I wrote clear testing steps that cover the changes made in this PR
  • I added steps for local testing in the Tests section
  • I added steps for the expected offline behavior in the Offline steps section
  • I added steps for Staging and/or Production testing in the QA steps section
  • I added steps to cover failure scenarios (i.e. verify an input displays the correct error message if the entered data is not correct)
  • I turned off my network connection and tested it while offline to ensure it matches the expected behavior (i.e. verify the default avatar icon is displayed if app is offline)
  • I tested this PR with a High Traffic account against the staging or production API to ensure there are no regressions (e.g. long loading states that impact usability).
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Screenshots/Videos

Android: Native

android-fix.mov

Android: mWeb Chrome

android-web.mp4

iOS: Native

ios.mov

iOS: mWeb Safari

ios.mov

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

after-web.mp4

MacOS: Desktop

desktop.mp4

[melvin-bot]

@parasharrajat Please copy/paste the Reviewer Checklist from here into a new comment on this PR and complete it. If you have the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

[fahimj]

I have a concern about my comment here: #72726 (comment) — it looks like the current optimistic next step approver message isn’t in sync with the backend. Should we fix it?

[codecov]

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 92.30769% with 2 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
src/libs/ReportUtils.ts	90.90%	2 Missing ⚠️

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/libs/actions/IOU.ts	64.35% <100.00%> (+0.91%)	⬆️
src/libs/ReportUtils.ts	75.17% <90.90%> (+0.27%)	⬆️

... and 5 files with indirect coverage changes

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

• ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.
• 📦 JS Bundle Analysis: Save yourself from yourself by tracking and limiting bundle sizes in JS merges.

[trjExpensify]

I am still trying to reproduce #72742 . In the attached video it seems working fine..do I miss something?

@parasharrajat any input on the steps?

[parasharrajat]

I will add the vid here.

[parasharrajat]

So it seems to be working fine. I might have old cache.

[parasharrajat]

Going to resume testing on this now.

[fahimj]

Fixed Issue Videos

new issue :

issue-72726-fix.mp4

#72742 :

cant-repro.mp4

#72726 :

issue-72742-fix.mp4

[trjExpensify]

Going to resume testing on this now.

@parasharrajat did you complete that the other day?

[parasharrajat]

Screenshots

🔲 iOS / native

01.11.2025_05.25.40_REC.mp4

14.10.2025_17.49.51_REC.mp4

🔲 iOS / Safari

14.10.2025_18.13.46_REC.mp4

🔲 MacOS / Desktop

01.11.2025_05.05.11_REC.mp4

🔲 MacOS / Chrome

01.11.2025_03.19.32_REC.mp4

🔲 Android / Chrome

01.11.2025_05.29.41_REC.mp4

🔲 Android / native

14.10.2025_17.45.36_REC.mp4

[trjExpensify]

@parasharrajat update here, please?

[parasharrajat]

Reviewer Checklist

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🎀 👀 🎀 C+ reviewed

[parasharrajat]

I noticed that add approver does not currently handle the next step correctly. This is same on the backend too as it does not get fixed on refreshing.

This is not in the scope of this PR. I will handle it separately and will discuss it on issue or slack.

Here are the steps.

1. Create a workspace.
2. Have yourself as approver in athe pproval flow.
3. Send a expense report from a member.
4. Open the expense report, saying that you need to approve it. ✅
5. Now add approver from change approver. This still says that you need to approve the report. 🟥 . It should say that new approver needs to approve it.

[marcaaron]

LGTM I just have a couple of comments about variable names. Otherwise, this looks ready to merge.

[marcaaron]

Can we rename this variable to bypassApproverAccountID?

[marcaaron]

Suggested change

	function getBypassApproverIfTakenControl(expenseReport: OnyxEntry<Report>): number | null {
	function getBypassApproverAccountIDIfTakenControl(expenseReport: OnyxEntry<Report>): number | null {

[parasharrajat]

Created an #74114 issue for #72892 (comment)

[parasharrajat]

@marcaaron This is ready for you.

[OSBotify]

✋ This PR was not deployed to staging yet because QA is ongoing. It will be automatically deployed to staging after the next production release.

[OSBotify]

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/marcaaron in version: 9.2.45-0 🚀

platform	result
🖥 desktop 🖥	success ✅
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅

[OSBotify]

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/luacmartins in version: 9.2.45-6 🚀

platform	result
🖥 desktop 🖥	success ✅
🕸 web 🕸	success ✅
🤖 android 🤖	success ✅
🍎 iOS 🍎	success ✅