[$250] Recipient field don't update to new WS name after upgrade and saving rate in manual track dist

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: 9.3.74-0
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-28774/folder/18717689/49855697/1413061698
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): applausetester+ck513261@applause.expensifail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Regression TC Execution
Device used: Windows 11/Chrome, Pixel 8a/Android 16
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

1. Use Expensifail account (or gmail account)
2. The user does not have workspace
3. User have Self-DM

Steps:

1. Launch Hybrid app or navigate to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Login with new account
3. Click the + global create button, select "Track Distance", and go to the "Manual" tab
4. Enter a valid distance and click "Next"
5. Select the user’s email address(Personal) as the recipient
6. Click the "Rate" option row and click "Upgrade"  (A workspace will be created for the user at this stage)
7. Set a custom distance rate and click "Save"
8. Observe the To field do not update to new WS name. Instead, still Self DM displayed

Expected Result:

After saving custom distance rate, user get redirected to the "Confirm details" page and the recipient field should get updated to the new workspace name

Actual Result:

Recipient field do not get updated to the new workspace name after upgrading & saving custom distance rate. To field still display the Self DM, user has to select the created WS tapping To field for the manual distance expense to get create in new WS

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Video.mp4

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[melvin-bot]

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

[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.

[melvin-bot]

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

[melvin-bot]

Current assignee @yuwenmemon is eligible for the Engineering assigner, not assigning anyone new.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

When a user clicks "Rate" → "Upgrade" during the Track Distance flow, a new workspace is created but the transaction's participants are never updated to reflect it. The "To" field stays on Self-DM.

In IOURequestStepUpgrade.tsx, the afterUpgradeAcknowledged callback has two guards that skip participant updates for track expenses:

1. setMoneyRequestParticipants is gated behind shouldSubmitExpense, which is false for track expenses (set as !isTrackExpense in RateField.tsx:85).
2. setTransactionReport is gated behind !isTrack, so the transaction's reportID also remains the self-DM.

Neither CreateDistanceRatePage (only updates the rate) nor the IOURequestStepConfirmation useEffect (short-circuits when participants already exist) compensates for the missing update.

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

In IOURequestStepUpgrade.tsx, within the DISTANCE_RATES case of afterUpgradeAcknowledged, call setMoneyRequestParticipants for track expenses too (when it's a distance rate upgrade). The transaction participants should be updated to reference the new workspace's policy expense chat, similar to how it's done when shouldSubmitExpense is true. Specifically, the if (shouldSubmitExpense) guard at line 160 should also allow the distance-rate-upgrade + track-expense case through, so the participant is set to the newly created workspace.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

An alternative would be to update participants in CreateDistanceRatePage after saving the rate, or to modify the IOURequestStepConfirmation useEffect to detect the post-upgrade state and re-set participants. However, updating participants at the point of upgrade in IOURequestStepUpgrade.tsx is the most direct fix since that's where the workspace is created and where the non-track path already handles this correctly.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis, or explain why you are rejecting Melvin's proposal.