[$250] Rule - Empty user names are displayed when searched in attendee field in an expense detail

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: v9.3.2-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2219752/test-runs/TR-2966/folder/13176708/41236908/1125946493?sort=%2Bidentifier
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): N/A
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Regression TC Execution
Device used: Windows 11/ Chrome
App Component: Workspace Settings

Action Performed:

Pre-requisite:
User has a control workspace with an employee
Control workspace has Rules enable in More features
Workspace has attendee tracking enabled in Rules

Steps:

1. Sign in to staging.new.expensify.com with an account that fulfils the pre-requisite
2. Navigate to workspace chat
3. Create an expense with an attendee set in the expense preview
4. Navigate to the expense created in step 3
5. Click on "Attendee" field in the expense details
6. Search for the employee user name (make sure to type the full name to search for the employee)
7. Clear the search field
8. Search for random characters (eg. x, y, z, ... anything that is not used as a username for an employee in the workspace)

Expected Result:

No results found is displayed

Actual Result:

an empty account with the searched character as a username is displayed even though the account is not a member of the workspace

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7049495_1768432488135.bandicam_2026-01-15_01-55-26-149.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022011952979323507518
• Upwork Job ID: 2011952979323507518
• Last Price Increase: 2026-01-16

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @jayeshmangwani

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @mallenexpensify (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.

[annaweber830]

Proposal

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

When selecting an attendee in an expense’s details, searching for a non-member string (e.g., random characters) shows an “empty account” row instead of showing No results found.

What is the root cause of that problem?

The attendee selector uses the shared search/selection hook with includeUserToInvite enabled for the attendee search context. That option intentionally creates an “optimistic/invite” list item from arbitrary search input (especially when shouldAcceptName is enabled for the attendee context), so random text becomes a selectable pseudo-user.

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

Disable the “user to invite / optimistic user” behavior for the attendee selector flow, so attendee search results only include valid existing options (workspace members/available contacts per existing rules). With this change, when there are no matches the UI will correctly display No results found instead of a generated row.

App/src/pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx

Line 94 in 8f123f4

includeCurrentUser: true,

includeUserToInvite: false,

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

[dmkt9]

Proposal

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

an empty account with the searched character as a username is displayed even though the account is not a member of the workspace

What is the root cause of that problem?

We currently allow inviting users with includeUserToInvite: true here.

App/src/pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx

Line 91 in fb1e667

includeUserToInvite: true,

At the same time, we do not filter out users who are not members of the policy.

App/src/pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx

Lines 132 to 137 in fb1e667

	const orderedOptions = orderOptions(
	{
	recentReports: availableOptions.recentReports,
	personalDetails: availableOptions.personalDetails,
	workspaceChats: availableOptions.workspaceChats ?? [],
	},

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

Test branch

1. Set includeUserToInvite to false.
   

   App/src/pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx

   Line 91 in fb1e667

   includeUserToInvite: true,

    includeUserToInvite: false,

2. Filter to only include users who are members of the policy.
   

   App/src/pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx

   Line 135 in fb1e667

   personalDetails: availableOptions.personalDetails,

    personalDetails: availableOptions.personalDetails.filter((person) => !policy?.employeeList || !person.login || person.login in policy.employeeList),

App/src/pages/iou/request/MoneyRequestAttendeeSelector.tsx

Line 75 in fb1e667

const recentAttendeeLists = useMemo(() => getFilteredRecentAttendees(personalDetails, attendees, recentAttendees ?? []), [personalDetails, attendees, recentAttendees]);

const recentAttendeeLists = useMemo(
    () => getFilteredRecentAttendees(personalDetails, attendees, recentAttendees ?? [], policy?.employeeList),
    [personalDetails, attendees, recentAttendees, policy?.employeeList],
);

App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts

Line 2440 in fb1e667

function getFilteredRecentAttendees(personalDetails: OnyxEntry<PersonalDetailsList>, attendees: Attendee[], recentAttendees: Attendee[]): Option[] {

function getFilteredRecentAttendees(personalDetails: OnyxEntry<PersonalDetailsList>, attendees: Attendee[], recentAttendees: Attendee[], policyEmployeeList?: PolicyEmployeeList): Option[] {

App/src/libs/OptionsListUtils/index.ts

Line 2456 in fb1e667

.filter((attendee) => !attendees.find(({email, displayName}) => (attendee.email ? email === attendee.email : displayName === attendee.displayName)))

    .filter(
        (attendee) =>
            !attendees.find(({email, displayName}) => (attendee.email ? email === attendee.email : displayName === attendee.displayName)) &&
            (!policyEmployeeList || !attendee.email || (attendee.login ?? attendee.email) in policyEmployeeList),
    )

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

N/A

[nkdengineer]

It's expected here

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022011952979323507518

[melvin-bot]

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

[brianlee-expensify]

@mallenexpensify seems like this is expected behavior (see comment)

@jayeshmangwani to confirm

[melvin-bot]

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