Report - "You already have an empty report" seen when creating report after merging expenses

[jponikarchuk]

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email contributors@expensify.com to request to join our Slack channel!

---

Version Number: 9.2.85-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2219752/test-runs/TR-2466/folder/13176670/55373587/1086558392?q=merge&issue_type=jira
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): ibellicotest+2230@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Motorola MotoG60 / Android 12 / Chrome ( mWeb / Hybrid app)
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Prerequisite: Account has at least one workspace.

1. Open the Expensify app.
2. Open any workspace chat.
3. Create two manual expenses on two different reports.
4. Open the first created expense.
5. Tap on "More" > "Merge"
6. Select the second expense.
7. Keep all the details from the second expense.
8. Tap on "Continue" > "Merge Expenses"
9. Once you land on chat, tap on "+" and select "Create Report"
10. Note that "You already have an empty report" modal appears, despite not having any empty report in chat.

Expected Result:

User should be able to create a new empty report after merging expenses in workspace chat.

Actual Result:

After merging expenses from different reports on workspace chat, and trying to create a new report, "You already have an empty report" modal is displayed, despite chat not having any empty report in it.

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

View all open jobs on GitHub

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @mallenexpensify (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.

[ryntgh]

Proposal

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

Report - "You already have an empty report" seen when creating report after merging expenses

What is the root cause of that problem?

The merge logic only checks if the source transaction report should be deleted, but doesn't check if the target transaction original report should be deleted when its reportID changes

App/src/libs/actions/MergeTransaction.ts

Lines 330 to 340 in c8e05f1

	const transactionsOfSourceReport = getReportTransactions(sourceTransaction.reportID);
	const optimisticSourceReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
	transactionsOfSourceReport.length === 1
	? [
	{
	onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
	key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${sourceTransaction.reportID}`,
	value: null,
	},
	]
	: [];

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

We can check if the target transaction original report should be deleted when the reportID changes during merge

    const failureSourceReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
        transactionsOfSourceReport.length === 1
            ? [
                  {
                      onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
                      key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${sourceTransaction.reportID}`,
                      value: getReportOrDraftReport(sourceTransaction.reportID),
                  },
              ]
            : [];

    // Check if the target transaction is moving to a different report
    const isMovingTargetTransaction = targetTransaction.reportID !== mergeTransaction.reportID;
    const transactionsOfTargetReport = isMovingTargetTransaction ? getReportTransactions(targetTransaction.reportID) : [];
    const optimisticTargetReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
        isMovingTargetTransaction && transactionsOfTargetReport.length === 1
            ? [
                  {
                      onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
                      key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${targetTransaction.reportID}`,
                      value: null,
                  },
              ]
            : [];

    // @ts-expect-error - will be solved in https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/73830
    const failureTargetReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
        isMovingTargetTransaction && transactionsOfTargetReport.length === 1
            ? [
                  {
                      onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
                      key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${targetTransaction.reportID}`,
                      value: getReportOrDraftReport(targetTransaction.reportID),
                  },
              ]
            : [];

App/src/libs/actions/MergeTransaction.ts

Lines 343 to 352 in c8e05f1

	const failureSourceReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
	transactionsOfSourceReport.length === 1
	? [
	{
	onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
	key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${sourceTransaction.reportID}`,
	value: getReportOrDraftReport(sourceTransaction.reportID),
	},
	]
	: [];

Then include these new arrays when building the optimistic/failure data arrays

    const optimisticData: OnyxUpdate[] = [
        ...onyxTargetTransactionData.optimisticData,
        optimisticSourceTransactionData,
        ...optimisticSourceReportData,
        ...optimisticTargetReportData,
        ...optimisticSourceReportActionData,
    ];

    const failureData: OnyxUpdate[] = [
        ...onyxTargetTransactionData.failureData,
        failureSourceTransactionData,
        ...failureSourceReportData,
        ...failureTargetReportData,
        ...failureSourceReportActionData,
    ];

App/src/libs/actions/MergeTransaction.ts

Lines 425 to 442 in c8e05f1

	const optimisticData: OnyxUpdate[] = [
	...(onyxTargetTransactionData.optimisticData ?? []),
	optimisticSourceTransactionData,
	...optimisticSourceReportData,
	optimisticMergeTransactionData,
	...optimisticTransactionViolations,
	...optimisticSourceReportActionData,
	];
	// @ts-expect-error - will be solved in https://github.com/Expensify/App/issues/73830
	// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unsafe-assignment
	const failureData: OnyxUpdate[] = [
	...(onyxTargetTransactionData.failureData ?? []),
	failureSourceTransactionData,
	...failureSourceReportData,
	...failureTransactionViolations,
	...failureSourceReportActionData,
	];

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

On mobile, after merging expenses, users land on the workspace chat page where the empty report exists. On desktop, users land on the expense detail page and don't immediately encounter the empty report

App/src/pages/TransactionMerge/ConfirmationPage.tsx

Lines 109 to 114 in c8e05f1

	const reportIDToDismiss = reportID !== CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID ? reportID : targetTransactionThreadReportID;
	if (reportID !== targetTransaction.reportID && reportIDToDismiss) {
	Navigation.dismissModalWithReport({reportID: reportIDToDismiss});
	} else {
	Navigation.dismissModal();
	}

Because of this, we can always navigate to the transaction thread report (expense detail page) after merging to make it consistent

        // Always navigate to the transaction thread report (expense detail page) after merge
        if (targetTransactionThreadReportID) {
            Navigation.dismissModalWithReport({reportID: targetTransactionThreadReportID});
        } else {
            Navigation.dismissModal();
        }

App/src/pages/TransactionMerge/ConfirmationPage.tsx

Lines 109 to 114 in c8e05f1

	const reportIDToDismiss = reportID !== CONST.REPORT.UNREPORTED_REPORT_ID ? reportID : targetTransactionThreadReportID;
	if (reportID !== targetTransaction.reportID && reportIDToDismiss) {
	Navigation.dismissModalWithReport({reportID: reportIDToDismiss});
	} else {
	Navigation.dismissModal();
	}

[abbasifaizan70]

Proposal

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

After merging two expenses from different reports in a workspace chat, attempting to create a new report incorrectly shows the "You already have an empty report" modal, even though no empty report exists.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The merge transaction logic only deletes the source report if it had exactly 1 transaction before the merge. If the source report had 2+ transactions and becomes empty after merging, it's not deleted and exists as a "ghost" empty report.

In App/src/libs/actions/MergeTransaction.ts:

const transactionsOfSourceReport = getReportTransactions(sourceTransaction.reportID);
const optimisticSourceReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
    transactionsOfSourceReport.length === 1  // Only deletes if exactly 1 transaction
        ? [
              {
                  onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
                  key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${sourceTransaction.reportID}`,
                  value: null,
              },
          ]
        : [];  // Report NOT deleted if it had 2+ transactions

The empty report detection in App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts then finds this report:

// Ignore transactions that are already pending deletion so we treat the report as empty once the removal is queued.
const transactions = getReportTransactions(report.reportID, reportsTransactionsParam).filter(
    (transaction) => transaction.pendingAction !== CONST.RED_BRICK_ROAD_PENDING_ACTION.DELETE,
);
return transactions.length === 0;  // Detects ghost report as empty

Bug Flow:

Report A has 2 transactions → Merge one away → Report A has 0 transactions
→ Report A NOT deleted (only checked length before merge) → hasEmptyReportsForPolicy() finds it
→ Modal appears ❌

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

Fix the merge logic to check if the report will be empty after the merge, not just the current transaction count.

In App/src/libs/actions/MergeTransaction.ts (line 330):

Current:

const transactionsOfSourceReport = getReportTransactions(sourceTransaction.reportID);
const optimisticSourceReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
    transactionsOfSourceReport.length === 1
        ? [/* delete report */]
        : [];

Proposed:

const transactionsOfSourceReport = getReportTransactions(sourceTransaction.reportID);

// Check if report will be empty after removing the source transaction
const remainingTransactions = transactionsOfSourceReport.filter(
    (transaction) => transaction.transactionID !== sourceTransaction.transactionID
);

const optimisticSourceReportData: OnyxUpdate[] =
    remainingTransactions.length === 0
        ? [
              {
                  onyxMethod: Onyx.METHOD.SET,
                  key: `${ONYXKEYS.COLLECTION.REPORT}${sourceTransaction.reportID}`,
                  value: null,
              },
          ]
        : [];

Why this works:

• Checks the future state (after merge) instead of current state
• Deletes any report that becomes empty, regardless of initial transaction count
• Prevents ghost empty reports from existing

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

None

Demo

Screen.Recording.2025-12-22.at.4.35.23.PM.mov

[mallenexpensify]

@youssef-lr 👀 plz since you're working on manually merging expenses. Let me know if you want to do something or if I should triage the bug. Thx

[melvin-bot]

@mallenexpensify Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

[mallenexpensify]

Bumping to weekly for a min cuz of work @youssef-lr is doing on Merge expenses. Will attempt reproduction next week and see where we're at

[youssef-lr]

Sorry I missed your earlier ping @mallenexpensify, I can check look into this later tomorrow.