[Due for payment 2026-09-18] Lightning bolt icon disappears from an auto-generated government rate after changing currency

[Krishna2323]

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Version Number: v9.4.56-0 (local dev, branch krishna2323/issue-95281)
Reproducible in staging?: No — the auto-update government rates feature is not deployed yet
Reproducible in production?: No — the auto-update government rates feature is not deployed yet
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: N/A
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers):
Logs:
Expensify/Expensify Issue URL:
Issue reported by: @Krishna2323
Slack conversation (hyperlinked to channel name): N/A

Action Performed:

1. Create a Control workspace and set its default currency to CAD (Workspace settings > Overview > Default currency).
2. Enable Distance rates under More features.
3. Go to Workspace settings > Distance rates > Settings and turn on Auto-update government rates.
4. Go back to Workspace settings > Distance rates and confirm the Canadian rate was created and shows the lightning bolt icon.
5. Go to Workspace settings > Overview > Default currency and change the currency to USD.
6. Return to Workspace settings > Distance rates.

Expected Result:

The new United States rate is created with a lightning bolt icon, and the previously auto-generated Canadian rate keeps its lightning bolt icon

Actual Result:

The United States rate is created and shows the lightning bolt, but the Canadian rate loses its lightning bolt icon even though the admin never edited it.

Workaround:

Platforms:

Select the officially supported platforms where the issue was reproduced:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Monosnap.screencast.2026-08-19.14-00-38.mp4

View all open jobs on GitHub

Upwork Automation - Do Not Edit

• Upwork Job URL: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022089995523439135219
• Upwork Job ID: 2089995523439135219
• Last Price Increase: 2026-08-19

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @suneox

[MelvinBot]

Issue Analysis

Root Cause: The lightning-bolt icon is rendered purely from isGovernmentRateUnmodified(rate). That helper (PolicyDistanceRatesUtils.ts:192-205) returns true only when the rate still carries an attributes.governmentRate snapshot and the rate's amount (within tolerance) and startDate and endDate all still match that snapshot. After the CAD→USD switch the old CAD rate stops satisfying one of those conditions, so its bolt disappears even though the admin never edited it.

Recommended Fix: In the currency-change flow, the previously auto-generated rate must keep its attributes.governmentRate snapshot, its rate amount, and its start/end dates untouched — exactly how the merged updateGeneralSettings already rebuilds existing rates (it spreads ...currentRates[rateID] and only overwrites currency, preserving attributes/amount/dates). The regression is being introduced by the government-rate currency-change handling that isn't on main yet — when it regenerates the government rate for the new currency, the old-currency rate is coming back without a matching governmentRate snapshot (stripped attributes, or an altered amount/date). Fix that so the old rate is left byte-for-byte a government match.

⚠️ Confidence: Medium. The display mechanism above is verified in merged code, but the exact code that drops the snapshot lives on the feature branch (krishna2323/issue-95281, not pushed to remote) and/or the backend currency-change job, neither of which I can inspect here. If the CAD rate arrives from the backend currency-change job already missing its snapshot, the fix belongs in that backend job — not in App.

Investigation details

How the bolt is decided — isGovernmentRateUnmodified:

• returns false immediately if rate.attributes?.governmentRate (or its rate amount) is missing;
• requires Math.abs(rate.rate - governmentRate.rate) < GOVERNMENT_RATE_MATCH_TOLERANCE (0.001);
• requires rate.startDate/rate.endDate to equal the snapshot's dates.

So there are three ways the CAD rate could lose its bolt on currency change:

1. its attributes.governmentRate snapshot is dropped when the rate is rebuilt/returned;
2. its rate amount is changed (e.g. a currency conversion) so it no longer matches the snapshot;
3. its startDate/endDate are changed.

Why it's not the merged currency path. updateGeneralSettings rebuilds optimisticRates[rateID] as {...currentRates[rateID], currency} — it preserves attributes, rate, and the dates, so on its own it would keep the bolt. The drop therefore comes from feature-branch/backend code layered on top of this flow.

Suggested check on the branch: log the CAD rate's attributes.governmentRate, rate, startDate, endDate immediately before and after the currency change to see which of the three conditions flips — that tells you whether it's a stripped snapshot (fix the optimistic/response merge) or an altered amount/date.

Related issues: part of the government-rates project — #95281 (auto-update toggle + setWorkspaceDistanceAutoUpdate action) and #95280 (workspace rate list display).

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Next Steps: 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 - @suneox (External)

[melvin-bot]

Job added to Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022089995523439135219

[mukhrr]

I think this one needs a BE change

[neil-marcellini]

Asking if @ShridharGoel can take this

[suneox]

I'll take a look at this one today

[suneox]

On a currency change the backend converts every rate to the new country's unit but doesn't update the reference value saved when the rate was auto-generated, so a system conversion looks like an admin edit and the bolt is hidden.

App can't tell those two apart, so @ShridharGoel we need a backend field marking whether a rate is still auto-generated or admin-modified.