Personal card expenses auto-added to a workspace report are created without an IOU report action

@hungvu193

Problem
Some expenses imported from a personal card get auto-added to a workspace expense report without an IOU (money request) report action. The action is only created later, when the user opens the expense.

Until the user opens it, the expense exists on the report but has no IOU action. App features that need the action fail on these expenses. For example, bulk delete from Search skips them without any message (see Bulk delete from Search silently skips legacy expenses that have no IOU report action).

These expenses are not legacy. They were imported in the last few days.

Steps to reproduce

Connect a personal card, not a company card feed.
Turn on auto-reporting on a workspace the user belongs to.
Wait for the card to import new expenses onto the workspace report.
Check the report actions before you open any expense.

Expected result
Each imported expense has an IOU report action as soon as it's imported, the same as company card expenses.

Actual result
The imported expenses have no IOU report action until the user opens each one.

Notes
This appears to be a backend/internal issue. A separate internal investigation is needed.

Related: Track legacy transactions missing IOU report actions

Reported in Slack.

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @hungvu193

Issue Analysis

Root Cause: This appears to be a backend/internal issue. A separate internal investigation is needed. The App never creates IOU actions for imported card expenses. The server imports the expense and adds it to the report, so the missing action comes from the server.

Recommended Fix: The fix needs changes outside the App repo. An internal engineer with backend access should pick this up. No App change fixes the root cause.

The action shows up later only because of the App's legacy fallback in src/libs/actions/Report/index.ts:1860-1950. When you open an expense with no IOU action, openReport builds one and asks the server to save it. That fallback was meant for old transactions (Track legacy transactions missing IOU report actions), not new imports.

Related issues:

Bulk delete from Search silently skips legacy expenses that have no IOU report action: a downstream symptom of this bug.
[Exploratory] Personal Card-mWeb - Empty report is created after fix broken personal card: possibly the same cause. A report whose expenses have no IOU actions can look empty.

Investigation details

The App doesn't create these actions.

src/libs/actions/PersonalCards.ts:39-97 only sends SyncCard and updates the card list.
src/libs/actions/ImportTransactions.ts:227-246 builds CSV-imported expenses as unreported (reportID: '0') with no report actions.
The server auto-adds the expense to a workspace report.

These paths trigger the fallback when you open an expense:

These App features break until the expense is opened:

Bulk delete skips the expense without a message: useDeleteTransactions.ts:330-333.
You can't edit or move the expense, because only unreported expenses skip the IOU action check: ReportUtils.ts:5456-5464.
Hold, Unhold, Move, and Delete are hidden in the report's selection menu (useSelectedTransactionsActions.ts).

The fallback has a gap. The prev/next buttons in the expense view open the parent report when an expense has no IOU action (TransactionThreadNavigationUtils.ts:66-69). They never trigger the fallback. This isn't the root cause, but it's an App-side mitigation worth fixing along with Bulk delete from Search silently skips legacy expenses that have no IOU report action.

Not related: Expense - Missing Delete option from context menu when report contains only one card expense has a separate App-side cause. It happens when the IOU action does exist.

To measure scope: Count the App log [Report] Legacy transaction fallback: creating money request preview for card expenses created recently. If the count jumped on a specific day, a recent deploy caused it. If it didn't, the gap has been there for a while.

Next Steps: An internal engineer should take this on, because the fix is outside the App repo. Reply with @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis.

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Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

Eep! 4 days overdue now. Issues have feelings too...

6 days overdue. This is scarier than being forced to listen to Vogon poetry!

this issue was created 2 weeks ago. Are we close to a solution? Let's make sure we're treating this as a top priority. Don't hesitate to create a thread in #expensify-open-source to align faster in real time. Thanks!

Huh... This is 4 days overdue. Who can take care of this?

Working on it 👀

Still working on it

@MelvinBot

@MelvinBot Looks like this is fixed, can you verify?

🤖 Web test steps verification results: ⚠️ partial

I couldn't confirm the fix end to end. A backend fix for this was deployed to production on Oct 5, but my web test stopped at the CSV file picker, which the test tool can't drive, so no expenses were imported. To confirm, connect a non-reimbursable personal card on a workspace with auto-reporting on. Then check that Hold, Move, and Delete appear for a new expense before you open it.

Step	Status
Workspace created with auto-reporting turned on Workflows > Submissions is on, and Frequency changed from Manually to Daily.	✅
Personal card import set to not reimbursable Import transactions: card name "Melvin Personal Card", USD, "Transactions are reimbursable" turned off.	✅
CSV import completes and the card shows imported expenses Reached "Upload a spreadsheet", but choosing a file opens a native file picker the web test tool can't use. The import never ran.	❌
Imported expenses land on a workspace report (not Unreported) Not reached, because no expenses were imported.	❌
Hold, Move, and Delete appear for an unopened imported expense Not reached, because no expenses were imported.	❌
Bulk delete from Search removes an unopened imported expense Not reached, because no expenses were imported.	❌

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@MelvinBot

@MelvinBot looks like it's fixed in here

I can't confirm that from the linked PR because I don't have access to that repository, so I can't read its diff or merge status.

Here's what I can confirm:

The internal issue tracking this backend fix is closed.
That fix was deployed to production on Oct 5.
I still can't reproduce the bug in the web test. It needs a card import, and the test tool can't upload the CSV file.

If that PR is the Oct 5 fix and you're happy with it, this issue can be closed. To double-check, an internal engineer can connect a non-reimbursable personal card on a workspace with auto-reporting on. Before opening a newly imported expense, they should see Hold, Move and Delete in the report's selection menu.

view run

Ok I can confirm this is fixed. I'll ask QA to retest this.

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Personal card expenses auto-added to a workspace report are created without an IOU report action #102280

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Personal card expenses auto-added to a workspace report are created without an IOU report action #102280

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MelvinBot commented on Sep 25, 2026

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