Expense - Rate list is blank when current distance expense uses personal rate

[applause-bot]

If you haven’t already, check out our contributing guidelines for onboarding and email contributors@expensify.com to request to join our Slack channel!

---

Version Number: 9.3.84-0
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: #84382
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): soidjnosnjdoijsioj@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.5 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• Account has no workspace.

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to self DM.
3. Create a distance expense.
4. Open the expense.
5. Click More > Split > Save.
6. Open any split.
7. Click Amount.
8. Click on the split.
9. Click Rate.
10. Click Upgrade > Confirm > Got it, thanks.
11. Enter rate and save it.

Expected Result:

Rate list will show workspace rates when the current distance expense uses personal rate.

Actual Result:

Rate list is blank when the current distance expense uses personal rate.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7164515_1779905211883.3.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Julia Ponikarchuk
Bug ID: 7164515

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @ZhenjaHorbach

[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/bfad7c7e14f7492fb9f9523a0ea5fd4013f7e7b3b4474203c180368202ab7901

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #84382

[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?

When editing the rate of a split child that uses a personal/P2P rate (FAKE_P2P_ID), all policy resolution paths in IOURequestStepDistanceRate.tsx:88-99 are short-circuited by the isP2PRate guard, resulting in policy = undefined. Then getMileageRates(undefined) returns an empty object (because !policy?.customUnits is true), so the SelectionList renders with no items — a blank rate list.

The resolution chain at line 99 coalesces four sources: policyForTransaction, policyByCustomUnitID, policyByCustomUnitRateID, and fallbackAvailablePolicy. For a user with no workspace and a P2P distance expense:

1. policyForTransaction = undefined — the split child report has no policyID, and the user isn't a member of any paid group policy.
2. policyByCustomUnitID = undefined — skipped because isP2PRate is true.
3. policyByCustomUnitRateID = undefined — skipped because distanceCustomUnitRateID === FAKE_P2P_ID.
4. fallbackAvailablePolicy = undefined — skipped because isP2PRate is true.

All four are undefined, so policy = undefined, and the rate list is blank.

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

The fallbackAvailablePolicy lookup at line 98 should not be gated on !isP2PRate. When a P2P distance expense is split, the user has already gone through the upgrade flow (step 10 in the repro), which means they now have a workspace. The rate selector should show that workspace's rates so the user can pick one.

Remove the !isP2PRate guard from the fallbackAvailablePolicy condition so it reads:

const fallbackAvailablePolicy = isEditingSplit && !policyForTransaction && !policyByCustomUnitID && !policyByCustomUnitRateID ? availablePaidPolicies.at(0) : undefined;

This allows the component to fall back to the user's available paid policy (which exists post-upgrade) and display its mileage rates, even when the original expense used a P2P rate.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

1. Prevent navigation to the rate screen for P2P splits — this would avoid the blank list but would block the user from changing the rate after upgrading, which defeats the purpose of the upgrade flow.
2. Use useSplitEffectivePolicy hook (which SplitExpenseEditPage already uses) instead of the inline resolution chain — this would work but is a larger refactor. The minimal fix of removing the !isP2PRate guard from fallbackAvailablePolicy is less invasive and addresses the specific gap.

---

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.