fix: Make Reject / Hold Messaging More Explicit by TaduJR · Pull Request #81806 · Expensify/App

TaduJR · 2026-02-08T20:01:39Z

Explanation of Change

The hold and reject reason form copy was generic and didn't clearly communicate the intent of each action. This change makes the messaging role-aware.

Hold: Since both submitters and approvers can hold expenses, the form now shows different copy depending on who is holding:

Submitter: "Explain why you're holding this expense." (unchanged — submitters hold to pause before submitting)
Approver: "Explain what you need before approving this expense." (new — guides approvers to request specific information)

Reject: Only approvers can reject, so the copy is updated directly:

Before: "Explain why you're rejecting this expense."
After: "Explain why you will not approve this expense."

The role is determined using the existing isCurrentUserSubmitter() utility, following the same pattern already used by the educational modals in MoneyRequestHeader.tsx which show different modals to submitters vs approvers.

Fixed Issues

$ #81216
PROPOSAL: #81216 (comment)

Tests

Hold - Approver flow:

Log in as an approver
Navigate to a submitted expense report
Click More > Hold an expense
Verify the copy reads: "Explain what you need before approving this expense."

Hold - Submitter flow:

Log in as the expense submitter
Navigate to your own expense report
Click More > Hold an expense
Verify the copy reads: "Explain why you're holding this expense."

Reject - Approver flow:

Log in as an approver
Navigate to a submitted expense report
Click More > Reject an expense
Verify the copy reads: "Explain why you will not approve this expense."

Bulk hold from Search - Approver:

Log in as an approver
Navigate to Search and select expenses submitted by others
Click Hold
Verify the copy reads: "Explain what you need before approving these expenses."

Bulk hold from Search - Submitter:

Log in as a submitter
Navigate to Search and select your own expenses
Click Hold
Verify the copy reads: "Explain why you're holding these expenses."

1:1 request - Payer hold:

Have User A send a money request to User B
Log in as User B (the payer)
Hold the expense
Verify the copy reads: "Explain what you need before approving this expense."

1:1 request - Requester hold:

Have User A send a money request to User B
Log in as User A (the requester/submitter)
Hold the expense
Verify the copy reads: "Explain why you're holding this expense."

Bulk hold from Search - Mixed (submitter + approver):

Log in as a user
Navigate to Search and select a mix of your own expenses and expenses submitted by others
Click Hold
Verify the copy reads: "Explain why you're holding these expenses." (generic submitter copy per design feedback)

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

Offline tests

Same as tests

QA Steps

// TODO: These must be filled out, or the issue title must include "[No QA]."
Same as tests

Verify that no errors appear in the JS console

PR Author Checklist

https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C01GTK53T8Q/p1771440128761189

Screenshots/Videos

MacOS: Chrome / Safari

melvin-bot · 2026-02-08T20:01:44Z

Hey, I noticed you changed src/languages/en.ts in a PR from a fork. For security reasons, translations are not generated automatically for PRs from forks.

If you want to automatically generate translations for other locales, an Expensify employee will have to:

Look at the code and make sure there are no malicious changes.
Run the Generate static translations GitHub workflow. If you have write access and the K2 extension, you can simply click: [this button]

Alternatively, if you are an external contributor, you can run the translation script locally with your own OpenAI API key. To learn more, try running:

npx ts-node ./scripts/generateTranslations.ts --help

Typically, you'd want to translate only what you changed by running npx ts-node ./scripts/generateTranslations.ts --compare-ref main

melvin-bot · 2026-02-08T20:01:45Z

@truph01 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]

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Reviewed commit: 4ab8d5139c

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src/pages/Search/SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx

… approver

… languages

codecov · 2026-02-08T20:21:30Z

Codecov Report

✅ Changes either increased or maintained existing code coverage, great job!

Files with missing lines	Coverage Δ
src/pages/iou/HoldReasonFormView.tsx	`100.00% <100.00%> (ø)`
src/pages/Search/SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx	`0.00% <0.00%> (ø)`
src/pages/iou/HoldReasonPage.tsx	`0.00% <0.00%> (ø)`
src/selectors/Report.ts	`0.00% <0.00%> (ø)`
... and 49 files with indirect coverage changes

…lk search hold

src/pages/Search/SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx

src/pages/iou/HoldReasonPage.tsx

src/pages/iou/HoldReasonFormView.tsx

chatgpt-codex-connector

💡 Codex Review

Here are some automated review suggestions for this pull request.

Reviewed commit: 0f1aca27eb

ℹ️ About Codex in GitHub

Codex has been enabled to automatically review pull requests in this repo. Reviews are triggered when you

Open a pull request for review
Mark a draft as ready
Comment "@codex review".

If Codex has suggestions, it will comment; otherwise it will react with 👍.

When you sign up for Codex through ChatGPT, Codex can also answer questions or update the PR, like "@codex address that feedback".

src/pages/iou/HoldReasonPage.tsx

truph01 · 2026-02-11T10:12:39Z

@TaduJR Please don’t skip the AI review comments.

For each suggestion, please react with 👍 or 👎. If you choose 👎, kindly explain why.

TaduJR · 2026-02-11T13:31:09Z

@TaduJR Please don’t skip the AI review comments.

@truph01 I didn't skip them, but left them as they were after verifying them/didn't react.

For each suggestion, please react with 👍 or 👎. If you choose 👎, kindly explain why.

Ok. Got it 👍.

Thanks!

truph01 · 2026-02-13T08:29:09Z

@TaduJR Do you have any updates on the PR? Have you had a chance to review all the AI suggestions?

…ject-Hold-Messaging-More-Explicit

…esign feedback

truph01 · 2026-02-26T10:04:40Z

@TaduJR I have one comment.

…ject-Hold-Messaging-More-Explicit

…ject-Hold-Messaging-More-Explicit # Conflicts: # src/pages/Search/SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx

src/pages/Search/SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx

truph01 · 2026-02-26T18:19:52Z

@TaduJR We have Prettier check / Prettier check (pull_request)Failing after 43s

…ject-Hold-Messaging-More-Explicit

truph01 · 2026-02-26T19:02:26Z

@TaduJR We still have an error:

We have Prettier check / Prettier check (pull_request)

TaduJR · 2026-02-26T19:07:39Z

@TaduJR We still have an error:

It was coming from main

…ject-Hold-Messaging-More-Explicit

TaduJR · 2026-03-04T10:09:33Z

Hi @srikarparsi

What latest here?

Thanks!

srikarparsi · 2026-03-04T20:28:41Z

@MelvinBot can you please review this PR

MelvinBot · 2026-03-04T20:32:04Z

Code Review

I've reviewed the changes across all 15 files. Overall this PR is well-structured and the approach is sound. All CI checks are passing.

What this PR does

Adds role-aware hold messaging: submitters see "Explain why you're holding this expense" while approvers see "Explain what you need before approving this expense"
Updates reject messaging from "rejecting" to "will not approve"
Adds isSubmitter prop to HoldReasonFormView to control which copy is displayed
Determines submitter status in both HoldReasonPage (single hold) and SearchHoldReasonPage (bulk hold from search)
Includes translations for all 10 locales and unit tests

Review findings

Logic correctness - The submitter detection logic is sound in both contexts:

HoldReasonPage.tsx: Uses parentReportOwnerAccountID === currentUserAccountID via the parent (IOU) report's ownerAccountID, which correctly identifies the expense submitter since the report here is the transaction thread.
SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx: Uses .some() to check selected transactions, which means mixed selections (submitter + approver) default to submitter copy. This matches the stated design intent.

Minor observation - In HoldReasonPage.tsx, if parentReportOwnerAccountID hasn't loaded yet from Onyx (i.e. is undefined), then isSubmitter evaluates to false, briefly showing approver copy for a submitter until data loads. In practice Onyx data is typically available before navigation so this likely isn't noticeable, but worth being aware of. If it becomes an issue, guarding with parentReportOwnerAccountID != null && parentReportOwnerAccountID === currentUserAccountID and defaulting to submitter copy when unknown would be safer.

Tests - Good coverage in HoldReasonFormViewTest.tsx covering submitter true/false, plural, and default behavior.

Previous review threads - The Search.ts PERF-11 changes were reverted per truph01's feedback, and the unnecessary empty list check was removed. These appear to be addressed.

No blocking issues found. The PR looks ready.

github-actions · 2026-03-05T00:04:49Z

🚧 @srikarparsi has triggered a test Expensify/App build. You can view the workflow run here.

github-actions · 2026-03-05T00:09:47Z

🧪🧪 Use the links below to test this adhoc build on Android, iOS, and Web. Happy testing! 🧪🧪
Built from App PR #81806.

Android 🤖	iOS 🍎
https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-android-Adhoc-61f4f7a-34c44ab-559517d484b71b38021b706d5f651f2491e6b44f/index.html	https://ad-hoc-expensify-cash.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/rock-artifacts/ad-hoc/rock-ios-device-AdHoc-61f4f7a-34c44ab-03677b4667338034365195a66f5f3749c1886768/index.html

Web 🕸️
https://81806.pr-testing.expensify.com

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OSBotify · 2026-03-05T00:13:29Z

✋ 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 · 2026-03-06T04:13:54Z

🚀 Deployed to staging by https://github.com/srikarparsi in version: 9.3.32-0 🚀

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

OSBotify · 2026-03-06T22:43:07Z

🚀 Deployed to production by https://github.com/blimpich in version: 9.3.32-3 🚀

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

fix: Make Reject / Hold Messaging More Explicit

4ab8d51

TaduJR requested review from a team as code owners February 8, 2026 20:01

melvin-bot bot assigned TaduJR Feb 8, 2026

melvin-bot bot requested review from heyjennahay and truph01 February 8, 2026 20:01

melvin-bot bot removed request for a team February 8, 2026 20:01

chatgpt-codex-connector bot reviewed Feb 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

src/pages/Search/SearchHoldReasonPage.tsx Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

TaduJR added 2 commits February 8, 2026 23:12

fix: Use parent report to determine hold reason copy for submitter vs…

577d269

… approver

fix: Add explainHoldApprover and update reasonPageDescription for all…

e81fe75

… languages

TaduJR added 2 commits February 8, 2026 23:22

fix: Determine submitter vs approver from selected transactions in bu…

d8c488f

…lk search hold

chore: run prettier

0f1aca2

TaduJR marked this pull request as draft February 8, 2026 21:27

TaduJR marked this pull request as ready for review February 9, 2026 07:29