Why are rules no longer working for mileage reimbursement?

element6

Hello,

I had been using the same rule for nearly a year since I started using Expensify to apply changes to mileage expenses automatically. Some time around June or July this stopped working and no matter what I specify in my new filter for the expression to match against the "Merchant Name" field, it refuses to work.

Are there any other wildcards other than the complete shotgun, "change every expense" approach of using . ?

When I input my mileage, I use New Expense -> Distance -> Manually Create.

I specify the number of miles and hit Save.

Once it is saved, the Merchant Name field is automatically generated to show "x mi @ $0.50 / mi" with x being the number of miles I typed in.

Previously, my rule worked fine at automatically detecting this. It was set to match "mi @ $0.50 / mi". It would properly set the following fields for me: Category, Account, Department, Office, and Description.

Sometime around June 2019 it has not worked and I have tried numerous different merchant name expressions for the rule to match with no luck. It's getting very annoying scrolling through all of the selections for the 4 additional fields that I am required to specify just to add each reimbursable mileage expense. What used to take me under 10 minutes is now being drawn out to 30-60 minutes on a bi-weekly basis.

Recently I started putting them all in and then taking the several extra steps and page loads to get to my rules to "edit" the broken mileage rule I specified and I click "Preview Matching Expenses" (yes, it matches all of them, so why doesn't it match them in the first place as I enter them?), then "Apply to existing matching expenses" and hit "Save Rule". Definitely a roundabout way to accomplish what is coined as an automated filter and definitely broken.

I'd greatly appreciate any ideas or help.

Thank you!

Stevie LaFortune

Sorry for the trouble with this @element6!  I was able to recreate this issue and have gotten the details to our engineering team to dig into. I am glad you found a bit of a workaround in the meantime.

I will be in touch here with an update.

element6

Thanks for the response!

Julia

Hello, one of my users has reported the EXACT same issue. (In fact, the details were so minutely accurate that I contacted him to make sure he wasn't the OP)
A report ID of his to reference for the Expensify team is: 53258013
@Stevie LaFortune if you could escalate my user's issue to your engineer as well I'd be very appreciative! Other users of mine have indicated a similar issue, but I didn't have the level of detail as much as element6 provided along with my user whose report ID I mentioned above. 

Julia

Also, I noticed that this feature stopped working for me last week Tuesday. I can confidently confirm that it had been working as early as the beginning of October, because I present during our new hires onboarding sessions and demonstrate this feature every two weeks. 
I wanted to mention this so Expensify can hopefully get a better understanding of the breadth and scope of this issue. 

Jason Li

Hi @Julia - thanks for also reporting this! I've also added your details to our internal tracking ticket, and as soon as our engineers have a resolution, we'll be sure to reach out again.

Apologies for any inconvenience!

element6

Hello @Jason Li  @Stevie LaFortune - Just checking in on this as it has been many months since I have been able to properly use this feature. It is making my mileage reporting a huge pain. Can we get an update on when this will be returned to working again or fixed?

Isabela Stisser

Hey @element6, thanks for following up on this! I don't have news on the issue yet. I just reached out to my engineers for an update, and I will let you know when I hear back from them.

Thanks!