[Due for payment 2025-11-26] Default distance rate is not selected when creating distance expense

[nlemma]

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Version Number: v9.2.29-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: No
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #71529
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): expensify416+da2@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Device used: macOS chrome 14.2, mWeb, Android, Desktop
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

1. Create a new workspace
2. Enable Distance Rates
3. Add two new rates
4. Rename the two new rates to A, and B
5. Go to workspace chat
6. Click + > Track distance > select start and end way points > Next
7. Click on Rate

Expected Result:

The default rate should be preselected

Actual Result:

Rate "A" is preselected

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug6970734_1760100254704.Screen_Recording_2025-10-10_at_3.37.21_in_the_afternoon.mp4

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Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @CortneyOfstad / @stephanieelliott

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @stephanieelliott (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.

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @francoisl (DeployBlockerCash), see https://stackoverflowteams.com/c/expensify/questions/9980/ for more details.

[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.

[nyomanjyotisa]

This was coming from my PR

Currently, on getDefaultMileageRate, we get the first item in the mileageRates as the default rate. In this case, since we sort the mileageRates alphabetically, the rate named "A" will be the first one and preselected

App/src/libs/DistanceRequestUtils.ts

Line 81 in 188a8e7

const distanceRate = mileageRates.at(0) ?? ({} as MileageRate);

As far as I know, we don't have any param to get the default distance rate value of a workspace. This is what mileageRates return before we clear cache and restart

mileageRates before clearing cache

[
    {
        "rate": 70,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "Default Rate",
        "customUnitRateID": "5CE340F95B19A",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 100,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "New Rate",
        "customUnitRateID": "4CBA6738CF3B4",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 200,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "A",
        "customUnitRateID": "A20E6912BD6B9",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 300,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "B",
        "customUnitRateID": "4B1173A5E7141",
        "enabled": true
    }
]

Then when we sort it alphabetically based on name, it would return this

mileageRates after sort

[
    {
        "rate": 200,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "A",
        "customUnitRateID": "A20E6912BD6B9",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 300,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "B",
        "customUnitRateID": "4B1173A5E7141",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 70,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "Default Rate",
        "customUnitRateID": "5CE340F95B19A",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 100,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "New Rate",
        "customUnitRateID": "4CBA6738CF3B4",
        "enabled": true
    }
]

But when we clear the cache and restart, mileageRates get sorted 'randomly'

mileageRates after clearing cache

[
    {
        "rate": 300,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "B",
        "customUnitRateID": "4B1173A5E7141",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 100,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "New Rate",
        "customUnitRateID": "4CBA6738CF3B4",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 70,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "Default Rate",
        "customUnitRateID": "5CE340F95B19A",
        "enabled": true
    },
    {
        "rate": 200,
        "currency": "IDR",
        "unit": "mi",
        "name": "A",
        "customUnitRateID": "A20E6912BD6B9",
        "enabled": true
    }
]

If we don't sort the getDefaultMileageRate, we will randomly preselect any rates that come first on mileageRates after we clearing the cache

497648095-7d273726-76eb-454c-aced-086bd223dff2.mp4

My PR prevents this by sorting the rates in getDefaultMileageRate, but it will always preselect the first rate displayed. Since we don't have any param to define the default rate, I think it makes sense for the preselected rate to match the first rate in the UI list

However, we could implement a workaround, like searching for a rate with a specific name (like "Default Rate") before falling back to the first rate in the sorted list

    const defaultRate = mileageRates.find((rate) => rate.name?.toLocaleLowerCase() === CONST.CUSTOM_UNITS.DEFAULT_RATE.toLocaleLowerCase());
    const distanceRate = defaultRate ?? mileageRates.at(0) ?? ({} as MileageRate);

But again, this is just a workaround and not the best solution

cc @ishpaul777

[francoisl]

As far as I know, we don't have any param to get the default distance rate value of a workspace.

That's correct, the first enabled rate in the rates JSON array is considered the default rate.

But when we clear the cache and restart, mileageRates get sorted 'randomly'

I think this is the real issue. Do you know what causes this random sorting? Is the list of rates returned in that order from the backend? It's stored as a JSON array in the policy object in the backend, so it should preserve its order.

However, we could implement a workaround, like searching for a rate with a specific name (like "Default Rate") before falling back to the first rate in the sorted list

Looks like we used similar logic in the backend until recently, but removed all that logic, so I'd recommend not going with that solution (cc @MonilBhavsar in case you have an opinion or suggestion here, cc #47801).

For now I'll demote but @nyomanjyotisa I'm thinking #71529 wasn't necessarily the proper solution to the issue, and we should instead figure out what's causing the unexpected sorting when we clear the cache.