Expense report- Violation expense follows the expense without violation

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Version Number: 9.4.36-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #96022
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): N/A
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Pull Request QA execution
Device used: Pixel 7a/ Android 16
App Component: Chat Report View

Action Performed:

Preconditions:

Create new account, create a workspace

Open Hybrid app / https://staging.new.expensify.com/
Go to workspace chat
Create an expense with violation (date: today, leave the category empty)
Create 2 more expense without violation (date is older than today)
Open the report

Expected Result:

Step 4 in PR :Verify that the expense with a violation is and then followed by an expense without a violation

Actual Result:

Expense with a violation follow the expenses without violation in report page.
If create an expense with a violation when enable rules (ex: amount over $25 without receipt), the violation expense is displayed first

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7210414_1784258089130.96022I.mp4

Bug7210414_1784258089125.96022A.mp4

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Applause Internal Information
Exported by: Mita Rachim
Bug ID: 7210414

While Applause doesn't embed attachments for this bug, here are the links for quick view:
https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/ba901dbcb3032f78b94393eff22aea573076cfbe89d121836a2f3dd2a1ba240d

https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/776453f338494e35258a15253e08c856d89a3560b9d37d99928037fadc15e800

https://platform.applause.com/services/links/v1/external/aaff819b2c99cb59644fe4e1abed96f200d31f604488cfffe04ec564dd834c20

Issue Analysis

This looks like a duplicate of #90063 ("Expense without category appears in the first place in carousel, then moves to last place"), which already has an approved root-cause analysis and an open fix in review (#90464). The two reports describe the same bug at different moments: #90063 captures the transition (violation expense flashes to the top, then drops), and this issue captures the settled end state (violation expense sits below the non-violation ones).

Root Cause: The report/carousel sort pushes transactions with a red-brick-road (RBR) indicator to the top, and RBR is detected via transactionHasRBR → hasViolation(..., showInReview=true). That check only counts a violation when showInReview === true (TransactionUtils/index.ts:2135).

On creation, the client writes an optimistic missingCategory violation with showInReview: true (ViolationsUtils.ts:553-554), so the empty-category expense briefly sorts first.
When the server response syncs, its missingCategory violation comes back with showInReview false/omitted, so hasViolation(..., true) now returns false. RBR disappears and the expense falls back to its natural date order — and since it has today's date (newest) while the others are older, it lands last.

This is exactly why the rules-based case behaves differently: a receiptRequired-type violation is returned by the server with showInReview: true, so it keeps its RBR and stays on top. The sort itself is violation-type-agnostic — the divergence is entirely in the synced showInReview flag.

Investigation details

Report page sort (RBR-first on default Date/ASC sort): MoneyRequestReportTransactionList.tsx:386-405
Report-preview carousel sort (RBR-first, date tiebreak): useReportPreviewCarousel.tsx:88-104
Both missingCategory and rules-based violations are stored as type: VIOLATION, so the comparator treats them identically when present — the bug is that the synced missingCategory fails the showInReview === true filter, not that its type differs.
Confidence: High — independently corroborated by the detailed investigation and proposal already on [$250] IOU - Expense without category appears in the first place in carousel, then moves to last place #90063, which reached the same showInReview conclusion with the same code path.

Scope note: The in-review fix (#90464) only touches the carousel preview (MoneyRequestReportPreviewContent.tsx). This report is about the report page transaction list, which sorts through the same transactionHasRBR/showInReview path. Whoever picks this up should confirm the report-page ordering is covered too, not just the carousel — and decide whether the durable fix belongs on the client (don't require showInReview for missingCategory RBR) or on the server (return missingCategory with showInReview: true, matching receiptRequired).

Related issues (likely duplicate):

[$250] IOU - Expense without category appears in the first place in carousel, then moves to last place #90063 — Expense without category appears in the first place in carousel, then moves to last place (open, in review; PR fix: stabilize money request report preview sorting by adding a date … #90464). Same root cause.

Recommended next step: Close this as a duplicate of #90063 and track the fix there, while confirming the report-page path is included in the fix scope.

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

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Whoops! This issue is 2 days overdue. Let's get this updated quick!

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

Still overdue 6 days?! Let's take care of this!

10 days overdue. I'm getting more depressed than Marvin.

12 days overdue. Walking. Toward. The. Light...

this issue was created 2 weeks ago. Are we close to a solution? Let's make sure we're treating this as a top priority. Don't hesitate to create a thread in #expensify-open-source to align faster in real time. Thanks!

This issue has not been updated in over 14 days. eroding to Weekly issue.

This issue has not been updated in over 15 days. eroding to Monthly issue.

P.S. Is everyone reading this sure this is really a near-term priority? Be brave: if you disagree, go ahead and close it out. If someone disagrees, they'll reopen it, and if they don't: one less thing to do!

@applause-bot[bot], this Monthly task hasn't been acted upon in 6 weeks; closing.

If you disagree, feel encouraged to reopen it -- but pick your least important issue to close instead.

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Expense report- Violation expense follows the expense without violation #96371

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Expense report- Violation expense follows the expense without violation #96371

Description

Action Performed:

Expected Result:

Actual Result:

Workaround:

Platforms:

Screenshots/Videos

Activity

applause-bot commented on Jul 17, 2026

MelvinBot commented on Jul 17, 2026

Issue Analysis

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