LHN - Negative expenses show "Mark as paid" action but "Pay" badge is not visible on LHN.

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.3.37.0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #85025
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): ibellicotest+2250@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Motorola MotoG60 / Android 12 (Hybrid app) - Windows 11 / Chrome
App Component: Left Hand Navigation (LHN)

Action Performed:

Prerequisite: Account has at least one workspace.
Prerequisite 2: Delayed submissions, approvals and payments enabled.

1. Open the staging.new.expensify.com website.
2. Open workspace chat.
3. Create a manual expense with negative amount.
4. Submit and approve the expense.
5. Note that expense preview shows "Mark as paid" action.
6. Note that no "Pay" action badge is visible on chat preview on LHN.

Expected Result:

"Pay" action badge should be visible on chat preview on LHN for expenses with negative amount, as expense displays the "Mark as paid" action.

Actual Result:

"Pay" action badge is not displayed on chat preview on LHN for expenses with negative amount, despite expense displaying a "Mark as paid" action.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7101784_1773374533796.Badge_Negative.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @Pujan92

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #85025

[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.

[OSBotify]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #85025 - "feat: Expand GBR/RBR with an action badge" by @aimane-chnaif (High confidence)

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #85025 introduced a new action badge feature for the LHN (Left Hand Navigation) that shows text badges like "Submit", "Approve", and "Pay" instead of colored dots. However, the implementation did not account for negative expenses that show a "Mark as paid" action.

Root Cause: The function getIOUReportActionWithBadge (src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts:9805) calls canIOUBePaid with onlyShowPayElsewhere=false (default), which returns false for negative amounts. For negative expenses, the "Mark as paid" action is only shown when onlyShowPayElsewhere=true, but the badge logic does not check this condition.

Labels: This is a frontend bug - the issue is caused by App PR #85025 and the fix requires changes to App code. No backend changes needed. Keeping DeployBlockerCash label, removing DeployBlocker label.

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• Issue is reproducible on staging (version 9.3.37.0) where PR feat: Expand GBR/RBR with an "action badge" #85025 is deployed
• Issue is marked as "N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod" confirming this is from the new action badge feature
• PR feat: Expand GBR/RBR with an "action badge" #85025 was merged on 2026-03-12 and is in the staging deploy checklist
• melvin-bot automatically identified PR feat: Expand GBR/RBR with an "action badge" #85025 as the cause

Verification

• Affected files:

  • src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts - Contains the getIOUReportActionWithBadge function
  • src/components/LHNOptionsList/OptionRowLHN.tsx - Renders the action badge in LHN

• PR feat: Expand GBR/RBR with an "action badge" #85025 modifies these files: Confirmed via gh pr view 85025 --json files

Root Cause

The logic for determining the "Pay" action badge in getIOUReportActionWithBadge:

// Line 9805 in src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts
if (canIOUBePaid(iouReport, chatReport, policy, undefined, undefined, undefined, undefined, invoiceReceiverPolicy)) {
    actionBadge = CONST.REPORT.ACTION_BADGE.PAY;
    return true;
}

However, canIOUBePaid has special handling for negative amounts that requires onlyShowPayElsewhere=true:

// Lines 9734 and 9744 in canIOUBePaid function
const canShowMarkedAsPaidForNegativeAmount = onlyShowPayElsewhere && reimbursableSpend < 0;
// ...
return (
    isPayer &&
    isReportFinished &&
    !iouSettled &&
    (reimbursableSpend > 0 || canShowMarkedAsPaidForNegativeAmount) &&
    // ... other conditions
);

When onlyShowPayElsewhere=false (the default used in the badge logic), the function returns false for negative amounts, so no "Pay" badge is shown even though the expense preview shows "Mark as paid" button.

The expense preview component correctly handles this case:

// src/components/ReportActionItem/MoneyRequestReportPreview/MoneyRequestReportPreviewContent.tsx:215
const onlyShowPayElsewhere = useMemo(() => !canIOUBePaid && getCanIOUBePaid(true), [canIOUBePaid, getCanIOUBePaid]);

But the LHN badge logic does not check for onlyShowPayElsewhere.