Expense - IOU expenses show negative amount

[jponikarchuk]

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Version Number: v9.3.65-6
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
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-24375/folder/13177029/41237791/1381594512?sort=-identifier
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): josdjnosdjionjsdonjisod@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Regression TC Execution
Device used: Mac 26.2 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Open 1:1 DM with any user.
3. Send two expenses to the user.
4. Open the report.

Expected Result:

IOU expenses will not show negative amount.

Actual Result:

IOU expenses show negative amount.

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 @carlosmiceli (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[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: #86824 - "fixed custom report deploy blockers" by @mukhrr (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

PR 86824 introduced a new TOTAL column case in TransactionItemRow that incorrectly negates IOU transaction amounts when allowNegative=true is passed to getAmount without isFromExpenseReport=true. Reverting this PR is the safest path since the TOTAL column feature is the direct cause.

Assigned: @mukhrr (PR author), @QichenZhu (approving reviewer), @trjExpensify (approving reviewer), @JS00001 (approving reviewer) from PR #86824
Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash (Frontend bug — fix is in Expensify/App). No label changes needed.

Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• PR 86824 ("fixed custom report deploy blockers") introduced a new TOTAL column handler in TransactionItemRow/index.tsx
• The handler calls getAmount(transactionItem, isFromExpenseReport, false, true) with allowNegative=true always
• For IOU reports: isFromExpenseReport = isExpenseReport(transactionItem.report ?? report) = false
• The getAmount function's safety branch (return Math.abs(...)) is only reached when !isFromExpenseReport && !isFromTrackedExpense && !allowNegative are ALL true
• With allowNegative=true, the condition becomes !false && !false && !true = false — the IOU protection is bypassed
• The function falls through to the expense-report negation path and returns -amount
• IOU transaction amounts are stored as positive values (e.g., 500 for $5.00), so -500 → displays as -$5.00

Verification

The affected files:

• /home/runner/_work/App/App/src/components/TransactionItemRow/index.tsx — contains the TOTAL column case with the incorrect allowNegative=true call
• /home/runner/_work/App/App/src/libs/TransactionUtils/index.ts — contains getAmount function whose IOU protection is bypassed by allowNegative=true
• /home/runner/_work/App/App/src/libs/SearchUIUtils.ts — getColumnsToShow enables TOTAL: true for isExpenseReportView=true, which applies to both expense reports AND IOU reports opened in MoneyRequestReportView

The TOTAL column is shown in the IOU report view because MoneyRequestReportTransactionList.tsx passes isExpenseReportView: true to getColumnsToShow, and the column visibility map sets TOTAL: true for expense report views (line 5198 of SearchUIUtils.ts).

The bug is staging-only because PR 86824 was merged April 30 and is part of the v9.3.65-6 staging release but has not yet reached production.

Root Cause

In TransactionItemRow/index.tsx, the TOTAL column case:

case CONST.SEARCH.TABLE_COLUMNS.TOTAL: {
    const isFromExpenseReport = isExpenseReport(transactionItem.report ?? report);
    const totalAmount = hasConvertedAmount
        ? getConvertedAmount(transactionItem, isFromExpenseReport, false, true)
        : getAmount(transactionItem, isFromExpenseReport, false, true);

The 4th argument true (which is the allowNegative parameter) was intended to allow legitimate negative expense amounts to display as negative (since expense amounts are stored with inverted sign). However, when isFromExpenseReport=false (an IOU report expense), the getAmount function's early-return safety clause if (!isFromExpenseReport && !isFromTrackedExpense && !allowNegative) is not entered because allowNegative=true. The function then falls through to the expense-report negation path return amount ? -amount : 0, which inverts a positive IOU amount to a negative display value.

The fix should use Math.abs on the result or conditionally only pass allowNegative=true when isFromExpenseReport=true.

[JS00001]

@mukhrr can you take a look please?