[$250] Full story: Misleading error message when sending test receipt to self in “Test Drive” flow

[m-natarajan]

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Version Number:
Reproducible in staging?: Needs Reproduction (Blocked as Test drive modal not displayed)
Reproducible in production?: Needs Reproduction
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack:
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs: https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/4856
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @quinthar
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): #Convert

Action Performed:

1. Navigate to the “Take us for a test drive” onboarding flow
2. Enter your own email address in the input field
3. Click “Start test drive.”
4. Observe the error message.

Expected Result:

The system should display a clear and accurate error message, such as:
“Please enter the email address of someone else to send this test expense to.”
(Optional enhancement) Provide an alternative path:
Link to a guided test drive experience

Actual Result:

The system shows the error:
“That member owns a workspace, please input a new member to test.”
This is incorrect and misleading, especially when the user does not own a workspace.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

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

Screenshots/Videos

The link for the FS is in Slack thread

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @sobitneupane

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022034324240446975617
• Upwork Job ID: 2034324240446975617
• Last Price Increase: 2026-03-18

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

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

When a user enters their own email address in the "Take us for a test drive" employee onboarding flow and clicks "Start test drive," the error message shown is: "That member owns a workspace, please input a new member to test." This is misleading — the user may not own a workspace, and the real issue is that they entered their own email.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The verifyTestDriveRecipient function in src/libs/actions/Onboarding.ts:35-46 calls the VerifyTestDriveRecipient API, which returns an accountExists boolean. It throws an AccountExistsError whenever the account already exists — but the error class at src/libs/Errors/AccountExistsError.ts:9 always maps to the translation key testDrive.modal.employee.error, which resolves to "That member owns a workspace, please input a new member to test." (src/languages/en.ts:8473).

There are two problems:

1. No self-email check: The EmployeeTestDriveModal component (src/components/TestDrive/Modal/EmployeeTestDriveModal.tsx:60-66) only validates that the email is a valid format. It does not compare the entered email against the current user's own email (available via currentUserPersonalDetails.login), even though that hook is already imported.
2. Misleading error message: The error text claims the person "owns a workspace," but the API only checks whether the account exists — not workspace ownership. This makes the error incorrect for any existing account holder who doesn't own a workspace, and especially confusing when the user enters their own email.

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

1. Add a client-side self-email check in EmployeeTestDriveModal.tsx — before calling verifyTestDriveRecipient, compare bossEmail.trim().toLowerCase() against currentUserPersonalDetails.login. If they match, show a specific error (e.g., a new translation key like testDrive.modal.employee.errorSelfEmail → "You can't send a test expense to yourself. Please enter someone else's email."). This avoids an unnecessary API call and gives a clear, accurate message.

2. Update the generic error message at testDrive.modal.employee.error in src/languages/en.ts (and all other language files) to something more accurate, like: "This person already has an Expensify account. Please enter a different email address." This fixes the message for the non-self case where the entered email belongs to another existing user.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

• Backend-only fix: The backend could differentiate between self-email and other existing accounts. However, the self-email check is trivial on the client side (the current user's email is already available) and avoids a round-trip API call. The backend can still be improved independently if needed.
• Single generic message for all cases: We could use one message like "Please enter a different email address" for both self-email and existing accounts. However, having a specific self-email message provides a better user experience and makes it immediately clear why the email was rejected.

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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.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @sobitneupane (External)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022034324240446975617

[dylanexpensify]

Hold on proposals just yet