[Due for Payment 2026-02-12] [$250] Reports - Multi tags are separated by colon instead of comma

[mitarachim]

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Version Number: 9.3.11-0
Reproducible in staging?: Yes
Reproducible in production?: N/A - new feature, doesn't exist in prod
If this was caught during regression testing, add the test name, ID and link from BrowserStack: #80638
Email or phone of affected tester (no customers): sjdiojnsodjsosjio@gmail.com
Issue reported by: Applause Internal Team
Bug source: Exploratory - Significant User Experience Deterioration
Device used: Mac 26.1 / Chrome
App Component: Money Requests

Action Performed:

Precondition:

• Workspace has multi level tags.

1. Go to staging.new.expensify.com
2. Go to workspace chat.
3. Create an expense with multi tags.
4. Go to Reports > Expenses.
5. Click Filters > Group by.
6. Select Tag > click Save.
7. Click View results.

Expected Result:

Multi tags will be separated by comma.

Actual Result:

Multi tags are separated by colon.

Workaround:

Unknown

Platforms:

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

Screenshots/Videos

Bug7060737_1769644235493.4.mp4

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• Last Price Increase: 2026-01-29
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• aimane-chnaif | Reviewer | 110294735

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @

Issue Owner

Current Issue Owner: @trjExpensify

[melvin-bot]

You have been assigned to this deploy blocker because you recently merged this PR: #80638

[melvin-bot]

💬 A slack conversation has been started in #expensify-open-source

[melvin-bot]

Triggered auto assignment to @dylanexpensify (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.

[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: #80638 - "Add group-by:tag" by @neil-marcellini (High confidence)
Related Issues: None

Recommendation: REVERT

This PR introduced the group-by-tag feature but failed to properly format multi-level tags for display. The bug only affects the new group-by-tag feature and reverting is the safest approach to unblock the deploy.

Labels: Keeping DeployBlockerCash (App PR caused the issue), removing DeployBlocker (no backend fix needed)

📋 Detailed Analysis

Evidence

PR #80638 added functionality to group expenses by tag in the search results. The issue appears when using workspaces with multi-level tags (e.g., "Project:Phase:Task") - these tags are displayed with colons instead of commas in the grouped view.

The PR was merged on 2026-01-27 and is included in the current staging deploy (9.3.11-0), which matches when the bug was first reported.

Verification

Affected file: src/libs/SearchUIUtils.ts

The bug is in the getTagSections() function at line 2366:

const formattedTag = isEmptyTag ? translate('search.noTag') : rawTag;

Root cause: Multi-level tags in Expensify are stored with colon separators internally (e.g., "Level1:Level2:Level3"), but should be displayed with comma separators (e.g., "Level1, Level2, Level3") for better readability.

Confirmed evidence:

1. ✅ The function getCommaSeparatedTagNameWithSanitizedColons() exists in PolicyUtils.ts (line 617) specifically for this purpose
2. ✅ This function is correctly used in other parts of the app, e.g., TransactionPreviewContent.tsx (line 368)
3. ✅ The new getTagSections() function does NOT use this formatter - it just displays the raw tag value
4. ✅ Similar group-by functions for category use appropriate formatters (getDecodedCategoryName)

Root Cause

When PR #80638 added the group-by-tag feature, it directly used the raw tag value from the backend without applying the standard formatting function. Multi-level tags come from the backend with colons as level separators, but the display convention throughout the app is to show them with commas for user readability.

The fix would be a one-line change:

// Current (wrong):
const formattedTag = isEmptyTag ? translate('search.noTag') : rawTag;

// Should be:
const formattedTag = isEmptyTag ? translate('search.noTag') : getCommaSeparatedTagNameWithSanitizedColons(rawTag);

However, since this is a deploy blocker and the feature is new (not in production), reverting is the safest option.