[$250] Expense - System message shows "removed the merchant when saving merchant without editing

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: 9.2.73-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: Exploratory
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sodisnoisjosijdio@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Regression TC Execution
Device used: Mac 26.1 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• Invoice is enabled.

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Submit an expense without merchant to another user.
3. Open IOU report.
4. Click Merchant.
5. Without entering anything, click Save.
   → System message shows "removed the merchant (previously "Expense")".
6. Open FAB > Send invoice.
7. Send an invoice to any user.
8. Open invoice report.
9. Click Merchant.
10. Without entering anything, click Save.
    → System message shows "removed the merchant (previously "Expense")".

Expected Result:

There should be no system message when user saves merchant without editing it.

Actual Result:

System message shows "removed the merchant (previously "Expense")" when user saves merchant without editing it.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

1.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @dylanexpensify (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.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @MariaHCD (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[melvin-bot]

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

[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.

[MariaHCD]

Nothing specifically stands out in the deploy checklist 🤔

[samranahm]

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

Expense - System message shows "removed the merchant when saving merchant without editing

What is the root cause of that problem?

When an expense has no merchant set, it defaults to "Expense" CONST.TRANSACTION.DEFAULT_MERCHANT. We checks if the merchant value changed was missing a condition to handle this default merchant value. Here

App/src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepMerchant.tsx

Lines 113 to 115 in e288b20

	// In case the merchant has been set to empty string while current merchant is partial, do nothing too.
	if (newMerchant === merchant || (newMerchant === '' && merchant === CONST.TRANSACTION.PARTIAL_TRANSACTION_MERCHANT)) {
	navigateBack();

What changes do you think we should make in order to solve the problem?

We should Update the condition to also check for CONST.TRANSACTION.DEFAULT_MERCHANT, This way

• When a user opens the merchant field on an expense without a merchant, the field shows empty (the UI converts "Expense" to an empty string for display)
• If the user clicks Save without entering anything, newMerchant is ''
• The original merchant value is "Expense" (DEFAULT_MERCHANT)

The condition will correctly detects this as "no change" and returns early without making an API call
This prevents the creation of a "removed the merchant" system message

// In case the merchant has been set to empty string while current merchant is partial or default, do nothing too.
if (newMerchant === merchant || (newMerchant === '' && (merchant === CONST.TRANSACTION.PARTIAL_TRANSACTION_MERCHANT || merchant === CONST.TRANSACTION.DEFAULT_MERCHANT))) {
    navigateBack();

here

App/src/pages/iou/request/step/IOURequestStepMerchant.tsx

Lines 113 to 115 in e288b20

	// In case the merchant has been set to empty string while current merchant is partial, do nothing too.
	if (newMerchant === merchant || (newMerchant === '' && merchant === CONST.TRANSACTION.PARTIAL_TRANSACTION_MERCHANT)) {
	navigateBack();

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

Reminder: Please use plain English, be brief and avoid jargon. Feel free to use images, charts or pseudo-code if necessary. Do not post large multi-line diffs or write walls of text. Do not create PRs unless you have been hired for this job.