Members - Error shows up after people admin changes member's office location

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Version Number: 9.5.20-0
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: #104344
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): [email protected]
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.5 / Chrome
App Component: Workspace Settings

Action Performed:

Precondition:

Create a Control workspace.
Invite User B to the workspace as people admin.
Enable commuterExclusionsArrangements beta.
Workspace has company address and another office location.
Perform the steps below as people admin:

Go to staging.new.expensify.com
Go to workspace settings > Members.
Click on any member.
Click Change office location.
Select another location and save it.

Expected Result:

No error will show up after people admin changes member's office location.

Actual Result:

Error shows up after people admin changes member's office location.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7294611_1792776161672.3.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Julia Ponikarchuk
Bug ID: 7294611

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/7be575bd9d65be05f8ecc33847204acaad6d10acb32e540843149bd20827c7a9

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #104344

@mjasikowski

@mjasikowski @nkdengineer you have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you reviewed the offending PR: #104344

@Gonals

@Gonals you have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you authored the offending PR: #104344

👋 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:

Identify the pull request that introduced this issue and revert it.
Find someone who can quickly fix the issue.
Fix the issue yourself.

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

Deploy Blocker Analysis

Causing PR: [Payment due @nkdengineer] Set user-level office arrangements by Gonals. I'm highly confident this PR introduced the flow. I'm moderately confident about the mechanism.

Recommendation: demote and fix forward. The feature is behind the commuterExclusionsArrangements beta and isn't in production. Workspace admins aren't affected, and the failed change rolls back cleanly.

Root cause: The App lets People Admins change office locations on purpose, and it sends the same request for every role. That request appears to fail only for People Admins. When it fails, the App rolls back and shows its generic error. This appears to be a backend/internal issue. A separate internal investigation is needed.

Fix options (product decision):

Backend: Allow People Admins to run UpdateEmployeeOfficeLocation. This matches the App's existing People Admin permissions.
App: If office location should be admin-only, replace the canMemberWrite(MEMBERS) gates with an admin check. The gates are listed below.

Investigation details (App SHA ae1ed18)

People Admins get MEMBERS: WRITE: permissions.ts:123-131
PR 104344 gates every entry point on the beta plus canMemberWrite(MEMBERS):
The request sends only {policyID, employeeLoginList, officeID}, with nothing role-specific: DistanceRate.ts:908-914. On failure, the App rolls back officeID and shows the generic error: DistanceRate.ts:879-883
The PR's test steps covered only a workspace admin, so nobody tested the People Admin path.
None of the other PRs on Deploy Checklist: New Expensify 2026-10-23 touches the member office-location path.
SetEmployeeWorkArrangement uses the same gate and may fail the same way for People Admins. I didn't confirm that.

Next Steps: Reply with @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis.

view run

Behind beta. Not a blocker

@MelvinBot

@MelvinBot, this is fixed by https://github.com/Expensify/Auth/pull/25725, right?

Gonals, I can't confirm that. I don't have access to that repository in this run, so I couldn't read the PR.

It should fix this issue if it lets People Admins run UpdateEmployeeOfficeLocation. The App sends the same request for every role, so no App change is needed.

Also check whether it covers SetEmployeeWorkArrangement. The App gates it the same way, so People Admins may hit the same error there.

To confirm, retest the issue steps as a People Admin on staging after the fix deploys.

view run

Checked myself. Already merged and should fix this (which was a known issue). Closing this.

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Members - Error shows up after people admin changes member's office location #104896

Action Performed:

Expected Result:

Actual Result:

Workaround:

Platforms:

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Members - Error shows up after people admin changes member's office location #104896

Description

Action Performed:

Expected Result:

Actual Result:

Workaround:

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Activity

applause-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

github-actions commented on Oct 23, 2026

melvin-bot commented on Oct 23, 2026

MelvinBot commented on Oct 23, 2026

Deploy Blocker Analysis

Gonals commented on Oct 26, 2026

Gonals commented on Oct 26, 2026

MelvinBot commented on Oct 26, 2026

Gonals commented on Oct 26, 2026

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