[Due for payment 2026-05-22] Expense - Split preview does not show the entered merchant

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.3.74-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #87920
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sjdoisjoidsjnodsjo@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.2 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Log in with Gmail account.
3. Open DM with any user.
4. Click + > Split expense > Manual.
5. Enter amount > Next.
6. On confirm page, click Merchant.
7. Enter merchant and save it.
8. Click Split expense.
9. Open split preview.

Expected Result:

Split preview will show the entered merchant.

Actual Result:

Split preview does not show the entered merchant.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7153434_1778707521067.2.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @ShridharGoel

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #87920

[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.

[OSBotify]

🔍 Investigation Summary

Classification: Frontend bug
Causing PR: #87920 - "Feat: Manual expense flow UI refactor - r3" by @ChavdaSachin (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

PR #87920 introduced a regression in the split expense merchant display by adding an isMerchantSet guard that prevents showing the merchant on any committed (non-draft) transaction — including the split preview.

Assigned: @ChavdaSachin (PR author), @ShridharGoel and @puneetlath (approving reviewers)
Labels: DeployBlockerCash kept (frontend App PR caused the issue). DeployBlocker removed — no backend change is needed.

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

• The bug only reproduces on staging (version 9.3.74-0), not production. PR Feat: Manual expense flow UI refactor - r3 #87920 is listed in the StagingDeployCash checklist and melvin-bot already assigned it.
• The bug is reproducible via: split expense > manual > confirm page > set merchant > submit > open split preview — merchant is missing.
• PR Feat: Manual expense flow UI refactor - r3 #87920 modifies src/components/MoneyRequestConfirmationList/sections/MerchantField.tsx among other files.

Verification

Affected file: src/components/MoneyRequestConfirmationList/sections/MerchantField.tsx

PR #87920 introduced the following change in MerchantField.tsx:

const displayMerchantValue = !transaction?.isMerchantSet ? "" : merchantValue;

This line hides the merchant display whenever isMerchantSet is falsy. This flag is written to TRANSACTION_DRAFT when the user types a merchant during the new manual expense flow. However, committed (non-draft) transactions created by splitBill / splitBillAndOpenReport / buildOptimisticTransaction never set isMerchantSet on the stored Onyx transaction object. As a result, the split preview page (SplitBillDetailsPage.tsx) renders MoneyRequestConfirmationList with the committed transaction, which lacks isMerchantSet: true, so displayMerchantValue is always ''.

Confirmation that PR #87920 modifies the affected file: verified — MerchantField.tsx is in the PR's file list.

Root Cause

buildOptimisticTransaction (in src/libs/TransactionUtils/index.ts) constructs the optimistic transaction that is saved to Onyx when a split bill is created. It does not include isMerchantSet in the returned object. The isMerchantSet field is only written via setMoneyRequestMerchant / clearMoneyRequestMerchant to TRANSACTION_DRAFT during the new inline-input editing flow. The split preview page reads from the committed TRANSACTION collection, which never has isMerchantSet set, so the new guard introduced in PR #87920 incorrectly suppresses the merchant display for all committed split transactions.