[$250] Emails-"Nothing to report" displayed in report PDF for scan expense

[lanitochka17]

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Version Number: 9.3.24-1
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: Yes
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: https://test-management.browserstack.com/projects/2219752/folder/13176725/test-cases/41237078
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): N/A
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: MacBook Air 15.7.3 Chrome
App Component: Other

Action Performed:

Preconditions: two accounts needed User A and User B, you have an access to their email inbox

1. As User A, create a workspace with Delayed submissions set to Instantly, Approvals disabled, Payments enabled
2. As User A, invite User B to the workspace as a member
3. As User B, submit a scan expense in the workspace chat
4. Navigate to the inbox of User A, open the email with the submitted scan expense, open the pdf attachment at the bottom

Expected Result:

Report PDF for scan expense includes the correct information

Actual Result:

"Nothing to report" displayed in report PDF for scan expense, has an Outstanding label and and a receipt

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7083844_1771617741267.Emails_Nothing_to_report.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @getusha

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022026440755221880281
• Upwork Job ID: 2026440755221880281
• Last Price Increase: 2026-02-24

[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.

[MelvinBot]

Proposal

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

When User B submits a scan expense in a workspace chat (configured with Delayed submissions = Instantly, Approvals disabled, Payments enabled), User A receives an email notification with a PDF attachment that shows "Nothing to report" instead of the actual expense details. The PDF does include the receipt image and displays an "Outstanding" label, but the expense data (amount, merchant, category, etc.) is missing.

What is the root cause of that problem?

This is a race condition between ASAP Submit auto-submission and SmartScan completion on the backend.

Here's the sequence of events:

1. Scan expense created with placeholder data: When User B submits a scan expense, the transaction is created with amount=0, merchant='(none)', and receipt.state=SCAN_READY (App/src/libs/actions/IOU/MoneyRequest.ts:184-234). The actual amount and merchant are not yet known — they will be populated by SmartScan asynchronously.

2. ASAP Submit creates a new report and immediately submits it: With the "Delayed submissions = Instantly" setting, shouldCreateNewMoneyRequestReport returns true for scan requests when the ASAP Submit beta is enabled (App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts:10920-10924). Each scan expense gets its own dedicated expense report, which is auto-submitted by the server immediately.

3. Report enters SUBMITTED/SUBMITTED ("Outstanding") state: The function getExpenseReportStateAndStatus (App/src/libs/ReportUtils.ts:6650-6680) determines the initial report state. For this workspace configuration (instant submit + approvals disabled + payments enabled), the report goes directly to stateNum=SUBMITTED(1), statusNum=SUBMITTED(1) — which maps to the "Outstanding" label seen in the PDF.

4. Email notification + PDF generated before SmartScan completes: The server triggers the email notification (with PDF attachment) when the report is submitted. At this point, the transaction still has amount=0 and merchant=(none) because SmartScan hasn't finished processing the receipt. Receipt scanning is entirely server-driven — the App never transitions receipt.state itself (App/src/libs/actions/IOU/index.ts:2354-2365 confirms success data doesn't update receipt state).

5. Backend PDF renderer finds no reportable expense data: The "Nothing to report" text is generated entirely on the backend (confirmed not present in the App codebase). The backend PDF generator queries the report's transactions and either filters out transactions with amount=0/scanning state, or treats a $0 total report as having nothing to report. The receipt image is available (it was uploaded by the user), which is why it appears in the PDF, but the expense details (amount, merchant) are still placeholders.

6. SmartScan completes later: Eventually SmartScan finishes and the server updates the transaction with the actual amount and merchant, pushing an Onyx update via Pusher. But by then, the email has already been sent.

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

The fix should be on the backend (likely in Web-Expensify or Auth) since the "Nothing to report" text and email/PDF generation are entirely server-side. The recommended approach:

Option A (Preferred): Delay the email notification for scan expenses until SmartScan completes. When a report is auto-submitted via ASAP Submit and contains only scanning transactions (receipt.state is SCANREADY or SCANNING), the backend should defer sending the email notification and generating the PDF until SmartScan has finished and populated the transaction with actual amount/merchant data. This ensures the PDF always contains meaningful expense information.

Option B: Include scanning transactions in the PDF with a "Scanning" indicator. Instead of showing "Nothing to report," the backend PDF renderer could display the transaction with a "Scanning..." placeholder for the amount, similar to how the frontend displays it (App/src/libs/TransactionPreviewUtils.ts:342). This would at least communicate that an expense exists and is being processed.

What alternative solutions did you explore? (Optional)

• Not auto-submitting until SmartScan completes: This would defeat the purpose of instant submission and could introduce delays if SmartScan takes a long time.
• Frontend-only fix: Not applicable since both the email notification and PDF generation are entirely backend operations. The App's exportReportToPDF only sends a reportID to the backend (App/src/libs/API/parameters/ExportReportPDFParams.ts:1-5); the backend is fully responsible for querying report data and rendering the PDF.
• Re-sending the email after SmartScan completes: Could lead to duplicate/confusing emails.

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Next Steps for Contributor+ team: Reply with @MelvinBot implement this to create a draft PR, or @MelvinBot <your feedback> to refine this analysis.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to Contributor-plus team member for initial proposal review - @Krishna2323 (External)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022026440755221880281