[Due for payment 2026-06-02] [$250] Action Badge: Diagnose GBR display bugs — phantom GBR and missing action badge until click

[MelvinBot]

Description

Two related GBR/action badge display bugs have been reported that need diagnosis:

Bug 1: Phantom GBR on reports with no action

• GBR appears on reports in the LHN that have no outstanding action
• When clicking into the report, the GBR disappears
• The report's Onyx data shows hasOutstandingChildRequest: true but total: 0, transactionCount: 0
• Related: Action Badge: Phantom GBR appears on workspace chat and disappears on click #86287

Bug 2: GBR shows instead of action badge, converts on click

• Reports that do have real outstanding actions are showing a plain GBR dot instead of an action badge
• After clicking into the report, the GBR converts into the proper action badge
• The action badge should be visible immediately in the LHN without requiring a click

Expected Behavior

1. GBR should only appear on reports with genuine outstanding actions
2. When a report has an outstanding action, the action badge (not just a plain GBR dot) should render immediately in the LHN — without requiring the user to click into the report first

Platforms Affected

Both bugs have been observed on mobile and desktop.

Related Issues

• Action Badge: Phantom GBR appears on workspace chat and disappears on click #86287 — Phantom GBR appears on workspace chat and disappears on click (Bug 1 specifically)
• [$250] [Due for payment 2026-04-30] Action Badge: Fix deep link regression #86062 — Action Badge: Fix deep link regression
• [$250] [Due for payment 2026-04-14] Action Badge: Update badge, pin, and pencil icon sizes #86063 — Action Badge: Update badge, pin, and pencil icon sizes
• [$250] Action Badge: Show GBR/RBR action pill at top of chat when action badge is above scroll window #86064 — Action Badge: Show GBR/RBR action pill at top of chat when action badge is above scroll window

Slack thread: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C07HPDRELLD/p1741658389133729

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022058298202781740059
• Upwork Job ID: 2058298202781740059
• Last Price Increase: 2026-05-23

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @aimane-chnaif

[aimane-chnaif]

We need clear repro step

[aimane-chnaif]

I think I found one case with reliable repro step.

1. As user B, send an IOU to user A
2. Logout and login with user A

Expected Result: Pay badge is shown in LHN
Actual Result: Green dot is shown in LHN. Open the chat & navigate back to LHN. Now pay badge is shown in LHN

@MelvinBot is there any logic in the app to determine if current user should pay IOU (user-to-user) given pure report action (actionName = REPORTPREVIEW) only?

repro.mov

[MelvinBot]

Yes — the logic exists, but it depends on the IOU report being loaded in Onyx, which is the likely root cause of the bug you're seeing.

How it works: getIOUReportActionWithBadge() iterates through all REPORTPREVIEW actions in the chat, and for each one calls getBadgeFromIOUReport() → canIOUBePaid() to determine if the current user is the payer. If so, it returns a PAY badge.

The problem: At line 326, it does getReportOrDraftReport(action.childReportID) to fetch the IOU report from Onyx. If the IOU report hasn't been loaded into Onyx yet (e.g. right after login), this returns undefined. Then canIOUBePaid() bails out early at line 176 (if (isEmptyObject(iouReport)) return false), so no PAY badge is returned.

Meanwhile, the green dot still shows because hasOutstandingChildRequest on the chat report is set by the backend and is available immediately — so the attention check at ReportUtils.ts:4271-4274 passes, but actionBadge is undefined (since the IOU report wasn't loaded), resulting in just a green dot instead of a PAY badge.

Why clicking into the chat fixes it: Opening the report triggers loading the IOU report data into Onyx, so on the next LHN render getReportOrDraftReport() returns the actual report and the PAY badge resolves correctly.

Short answer to your question: The REPORTPREVIEW action alone does NOT contain enough data to determine the badge — it only holds a childReportID pointer. The actual payer determination requires the full IOU report object (specifically managerID/ownerAccountID) to be present in Onyx.

[aimane-chnaif]

ok @MelvinBot but I think we can determine if IOU (p2p user-to-user, NOT expense) report should be paid by current user. This doesn't require policy data.

Factors:

• chatReport's hasOutstandingChildRequest = true
• report action's childType = CONST.REPORT.TYPE.IOU
• report action's childReportID = chatReport's iouReportID
• report action's childManagerAccountID = currentUserAccountID (childManagerAccountID: payer, childOwnerAccountID: payee)
• report action's childStateNum, childStatusNum

Can you check if this logic exists in the app? If not, introduce new util function. Implement this.

[MelvinBot]

No, that exact logic doesn't exist in the app today. getIOUReportActionWithBadge() always fetches the full IOU report from Onyx via getReportOrDraftReport(action.childReportID) — it never reads the REPORTPREVIEW action's child* fields for badge determination.

I've implemented the fallback you described. Draft PR: #91449

Added canPayIOUFromReportAction() which checks:

• action.childType === CONST.REPORT.TYPE.IOU
• action.childReportID === chatReport.iouReportID
• action.childManagerAccountID === currentUserAccountID
• action.childStatusNum !== CONST.REPORT.STATUS_NUM.REIMBURSED

Used as a fallback in getIOUReportActionWithBadge() when the IOU report isn't in Onyx and chatReport.hasOutstandingChildRequest is true. Includes 3 unit tests (happy path + settled + wrong payer).

Please mark it as "Ready for review" when it is ready for review.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022058298202781740059