[Due for payment 2025-12-03] [$250] Expense - Delete option is missing in More menu after bypassing approver

[nlemma]

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Version Number: 9.2.38-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #72682
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): dsniojosinjdoisj@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: Mac 15.5 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• Admin invites member to the workspace.
• The invited member is the approver.
• Perform the following steps as admin:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Create an expense in the workspace chat.
4. Open the expense report.
5. Click Submit.
6. Click More > Change approver.
7. Click Bypass approvers.
8. Click Change approver.
9. Click More.
   BUG: Delete option is missing.
10. Go back to main workspace chat.
11. Right click on the expense preview.
    → Delete option is present - Expected.

Expected Result:

In Step 10, after bypassing approver, Delete option will be present in More menu because the report is not approved yet.

Actual Result:

In Step 10, after bypassing approver, Delete option is missing in More menu.

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

Bug6985002_1761496169295.8.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021983556846733895088
• Upwork Job ID: 1983556846733895088
• Last Price Increase: 2025-11-05

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @coderyak

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @sakluger (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.

[coderyak]

🚨 Edited by proposal-police: This proposal was edited at 2025-10-29 20:11:56 UTC.

Proposal

Please re-state the problem that we are trying to solve in this issue.

After bypassing approvers on an expense report, the Delete option is missing from the More menu even though the report has not been approved yet. The Delete option should be present because the report is still in a deletable state.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The issue occurs in the canDeleteMoneyRequestReport function in src/libs/ReportUtils.ts. The delete permission for expense reports is gated by a forwarding check instead of the report lifecycle. Concretely, the existing logic returns:

isReportSubmitter && isReportOpenOrProcessing && !isForwarded

This makes the Delete option depend on whether the report has been forwarded, which is unnecessary for the intended behavior. What we expect is that the submitter should be able to delete any outstanding report (Open or Submitted) until it is approved/finished, regardless of whether it was forwarded or bypassed.

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

Remove the forwarding-based gate entirely and base deletion solely on submitter + lifecycle (Open or Submitted).

Update the expense-report branch in canDeleteMoneyRequestReport:

From:

const isForwarded = isProcessingReport(report) && isApprovalEnabled && !isAwaitingFirstLevelApproval(report);
return isReportSubmitter && isReportOpenOrProcessing && !isForwarded;

To:

return isReportSubmitter && isReportOpenOrProcessing;

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

None

[sakluger]

I'm not sure if an admin should be able to delete an Outstanding report. Checking in Slack: https://expensify.slack.com/archives/C03U7DCU4/p1761577613486879

[sakluger]

I confirmed that a user should be able to delete an outstanding report as long as it has not been approved by anyone yet. So the expected behavior described above is correct.

Adding the external label.

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~021983556846733895088

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @ZhenjaHorbach (External)

[coderyak]

Proposal

Updated based on @sakluger's input.

[melvin-bot]

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