Expense- "You haven't created any categories" is shown when member has no access to categories

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.2.18-0
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 TestRail: #70821
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sjodjsjdoisjdosnjd@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Mac 15.5 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• User is invited to workspace.
• The invited workspace has disabled Categories.
• User does not have other workspace.

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to self DM.
3. Create a track expense.
4. Open the expense thread.
5. Click Category.

Expected Result:

Category field should be hidden because the invited member has no access to workspace categories settings.

Actual Result:

Category field is shown and it opens "You haven't created any categories" page.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6954976_1758758427314.Screen_Recording_2025-09-25_at_07.58.09.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @flaviadefaria (Bug), see https://stackoverflow.com/c/expensify/questions/14418 for more details. Please add this bug to a GH project, as outlined in the SO.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @techievivek (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.