Home - Awaiting approval is not shown for approver

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Version Number: 9.3.79-1
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: #89899
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sdsdjoijdoisnjodis@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.2 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• Admin invites member to the workspace.
• Member is the workspace approver.

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. [Admin] Create an expense in workspace chat and click Submit on the preview.
3. [Admin] Go to Home.
   → Awaiting approval is shown when admin is not approver.
4. [Approver] Go to Home.
   → Awaiting approval is not shown when member is approver.

Expected Result:

Awaiting approval will be shown for approver.

Actual Result:

Awaiting approval is not shown for approver.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7160118_1779401651863.5.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Mita Rachim
Bug ID: 7160118

[applause-bot]

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/1a99a24e3ef22766f923e5390988f277c9aa958cf01cf6eaa6bc2805a5c4cfa4

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #89899

[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.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

What is the root cause of that problem?

The new "Your Spend" section introduced in #89899 shows an "Awaiting approval" row that only queries the current user's own outstanding expenses. At queries.ts:14-21, buildAwaitingApprovalQuery filters by from: [currentAccountID] — so it only finds expenses submitted by the current user, not expenses awaiting the current user's approval action.

When the admin submits an expense, the admin sees "Awaiting approval" because the query finds their own outstanding expense. The approver sees nothing because the approver hasn't submitted any expenses — the query returns zero results, and the row is hidden via getYourSpendRowState (line 75-76: if (!searchResults.search.count) return HIDDEN_EMPTY).

Note: The ForYouSection's "Approve N reports" button (powered by the TODOS derived value and isApproveAction) was not changed by this PR and should still work for approvers — but it displays as "Approve" (not "Awaiting approval"), so the reporter may be looking specifically at the YourSpend widget.

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

This depends on the intended design:

Option A (Likely intent): The "Awaiting approval" row in YourSpendSection is meant to reflect the submitter's own expenses. No code change needed in YourSpendSection — but verify that the ForYouSection's "Approve N reports" is appearing correctly for the approver. If it is, this may be a misunderstanding of the UI rather than a bug.

Option B (If "Awaiting approval" should also show for approvers): Modify buildAwaitingApprovalQuery in queries.ts to also query for expenses where the current user is the approver (e.g., add a to: [currentAccountID] variant), and display a separate "Awaiting your approval" row for the approver-facing count.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

There's also a secondary gate: hasApprovalFlow checks !!policy?.approvalMode which could be undefined for non-admin members, hiding the entire row. However, the same check exists in isApproveAction (line 171) for the ForYouSection, so if the ForYouSection's "Approve" works for the approver, this isn't the cause. If it doesn't work either, then approvalMode not being populated for non-admin members is a deeper issue affecting both sections.

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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.