Last updated: 2025-12-03
Release Notes - SmartOffice 2020 Release 3
About This Document
For general information about SmartOffice release notes, visit the Release Notes home page.
Revision History
These release notes may be revised after their initial publication. This section lists the dates of any revisions as well as a list of changes.
November 6, 2020
- Initial publication
November 9, 2020
- Added Enhancement Highlights and System Requirements sections.
- Core System: Added solution for list export issue affecting enterprise customers (PMG-898785).
November 10, 2020
- Release Overview: Added Agency Management section under Enhancement Highlights.
- Integrations and Data Services: Added "National Life policy feed improvement" enhancement (PMG-891913).
- SmartCommissions: Added "Transaction remarks copied from speed receipts" enhancement (PMG-893404).
November 11, 2020
- Release Overview: Added the "Better Field Width Control in Custom Portlets" enhancement (PMG-811398) to the Enhancement Highlights section.
November 13, 2020
- Advisors/Agencies: Corrected description for Carbon Copy List enhancement (PMG-816817).
- SmartCaseManager: Added "Ability to include Required Of data in status merge codes" enhancement (PMG-890706).
- SmartCommissions: Added solution for correspondence issue with advisor commission check reports (PMG-882206).
- Edited some descriptions for clarity.
November 23, 2020
- Release Overview: Added release description and link to enhancement highlights video.
- Core System: Added "Automatic Dynamic Report FTP upload" enhancement (PMG-889902).
- Core System: Added "List and page layout performance enhancement" (PMG-889971).
Release Overview
SmartOffice 2020 Release 3 introduces a browser-based correspondence editor, a cybersecurity add-on that protects users' devices, and the ability to integrate with several popular IP phone systems. This release also includes workflow changes in response to a recent Google Chrome update, as well as useful custom page layout improvements. For agencies, Release 3 provides better management of advisor carbon copy lists and group plans, and it introduces a new underwriting requirement category for health records.
For a quick overview of this release, see our video.
Enhancement Highlights
This section provides quick links to the featured enhancements in this release.
Core System
Agency Management
Integrations and Data Services
System Requirements
There are no changes to system requirements for this release. For current system requirements, see System Requirements.
Note Regarding Text Changes in SmartOffice
This release may contain minor changes to text in dialog boxes and other areas of the SmartOffice user interface. Changes of this type are typically made to correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and other language-related issues. Such changes normally are not listed in this document unless they affect the way the application works.
SmartOffice Pro Changes
Core System
Featured Enhancements
Browser-Based Correspondence
Users now have the option to create and send correspondence completely within the web browser, without using Microsoft Word and the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice. With this new method, correspondence workflows work the same as they currently do, but SmartOffice opens a browser-based editor instead of opening Word or Outlook. The Ebix Editor looks and works much like Word, with support for SmartOffice correspondence templates, merge codes, headers and footers.
To enable browser based correspondence, go to User Preferences > Correspondence Options. Then, under Correspondence Method, select Browser. For additional help, see Ebix Editor. (PMG-773188, PMG-751027, PMG-803302, PMG-815964, PMG-822006, PMG-831844)
SmartOffice Secure
For home offices, SmartOffice Secure adds an extra layer of defense to SmartOffice's existing cybersecurity protections by safeguarding the devices that advisors use to access SmartOffice. When advisors sign in, this new add-on service scans their devices to identify weaknesses that cyber criminals can exploit (e.g., unpatched software and inadequate malware protection) and offers options for resolving those issues.
SmartOffice Secure also maintains a device security audit trail that can be used to demonstrate compliance with FINRA and SEC cybersecurity rules. For pricing and other details, contact your SmartOffice sales representative. (PMG-858233)
New Plug-in Workflow for Chrome Users
A recent Google Chrome update included changes that could interfere with SmartOffice correspondence and other workflows that rely on the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice. To address these changes, SmartOffice no longer pushes .sopro files to Chrome users for these workflows. Instead, Chrome now asks users for permission to open the SOProLauncher app.
Clicking the Open SOProLauncher button allows users to proceed with these workflows. Users can select the Always allow \[URL\] to open links of this type in the associated app option to hide the prompt in the future. This change applies to Chrome only; other browsers will continue to receive .sopro files. (PMG-893527)
Better Field Width Control in Custom Portlets
When modifying a custom portlet in a page layout, users can now adjust individual fields to half width or full width, enabling two-column field arrangements. This enhancement makes control over fields in custom portlets more flexible and consistent with that of predefined portlets.
For help with page layouts, see Page Layout Customization. (PMG-811398)
Automatic Dynamic Report FTP Upload
Users can now set up Dynamic Reports so that they are automatically generated and uploaded to an FTP site on a defined schedule. The options for specifying an FTP server are in the E-mail Rules Detail dialog box, accessible from the Automatic Report E-mailing step of the Dynamic Report Setup wizard.
For more information, see Dynamic Reports - Report Setup. (PMG-889902)
Browser-Based Analytic (Excel) Reports
The process for generating analytic (Excel) reports-reports---introduction) has been revamped. When users run these reports, SmartOffice now creates them on the server by default and delivers them to user's browser as Excel (.xlsx) file downloads. Because of this enhancement, the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice is no longer required for these reports (offices can switch back to the plug-in method by going to Setup > Office Settings and selecting Plug-In under Export Method). (PMG-834130)
Other Enhancements
General
- Improved export and correspondence workflows on non-Windows devices: When users on non-Windows devices export lists in Excel format or create correspondence in SmartOffice Pro, the system now automatically uses browser-based workflows instead of those based on the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice, which is a Windows-only feature. This new behavior applies even when current office settings or user preferences specify that the plug-in be used. (PMG-872782)
- List and page layout performance enhancement: To improve the performance of lists and custom page layouts for contact, business, advisor and agency records, the following changes were made:
- In lists, the Latest SmartPad Notes and Latest SmartPad Notes (Manual) columns no longer display entries older than 365 days.
- In custom page layouts, the SmartPad Notes and Activity Log portlets no longer display entries older than 365 days.
Users who need to view older entries can open the SmartPad or the Activity Log tab.
Note: Enterprise customers can change the 365-day limit by editing the values of the
(PMG-889971)
- URL hyperlinks in certain SmartOffice fields: When users enter a web address (URL) in any free-form text input field like Remarks, Description, or the Notes field in SmartPad entries, they can now click the address to go to the specified website. (PMG-894506)
Contact Management
- Ability to create spouse records on the fly: The workflow for adding a spouse/partner to a contact record was improved. When a user clicks the Add Spouse/Partner link and searches for a spouse/partner contact that does not exist in SmartOffice, the system now asks whether the user wants to add the contact. Selecting Yes triggers workflows for adding the contact, confirming the key relation and linking the spouse to a household. (PMG-185766)
- Non-Flash referral visualizer: The graphical Customer Referral Visualizer has been rebuilt to operate natively in the browser without requiring the Flash extension. The new visualizer differs in some ways from the Flash-based version. For more information, refer to the help topic. (PMG-879376)
- Text option for preferred communication: Users can now indicate a contact's preference to receive communications by SMS text. On the contact Add'l Personal content link, a new Text Message option is available under Preferred Communication. The new option is also available on these content links:
- Business Add'l Detail
- Advisor Add'l Detail
- Agency Add'l Detail
- Carrier Detail
The new option can also be made the office default for new records in Office Settings - SmartPad/New Contact/E-mail Posting. (PMG-890315)
Correspondence
- New contact merge codes: Three merge codes that expand to display data from the contact Personal content link were added for use in correspondence templates:
- F\_PE\_CITIZENSHIP displays the contents of the Citizenship field.
- F\_PE\_Tax displays the contents of the Tax field.
- F\_PE\_TotalIncome displays the contents of the Total Income field.
(PMG-892905)
- New preferred address state merge code: Users can insert the new PreferredAddressState merge code into correspondence templates to display only the state from the contact's preferred address. (PMG-895373)
Filters
- Ability to ignore year for additional popular date ranges: When defining filters that involve date columns, users can now select the Ignore year option for most popular date ranges. Previously, the option was available for only a few popular date ranges. (PMG-847913)
- New date range option for filters: When filtering on a date column using the Popular Date Ranges option, users now have an additional choice: Previous 13 Months. This date range covers the previous 12 months plus the current month up to the current day. (PMG-896025)
Resolved Issues
General
- An issue with list layout customization was resolved. When users tried to type a column name in the search box, they were experiencing lag, and the column list was loading slowly. (PMG-892488)
- An issue that was preventing users from permanently deleting records from the Deleted Records area of the system was resolved. (PMG-892709)
- Several issues with charts were resolved:
- In bar charts, bars were all the same color.
- Total counts were not displaying.
- Labels on the X and Y axes were missing or nor formatted correctly.
- Drilling down to different levels of data in groupings was not working properly.
- Goal charts were appearing left-aligned instead of centered.
- Percentages were not bolded.
- The data that appears when users point to a bar or line was not displaying correctly.
- Labels in bar charts were being truncated in a way that made them unintelligible.
- Goal charts were not resizing themselves appropriately when displayed in smaller home page portlets.
- Numbers were missing commas.
- Numbers in goal charts were not aligning properly.
- Colors in charts were changing unpredictably.
- Fonts were inconsistent.
(PMG-894176, PMG-894509)
- Users who have the Page Layout Customization - User user right were able to reset page layouts to office defaults but not SmartOffice defaults. This issue was resolved so that these users can now reset to SmartOffice defaults. (PMG-897310)
- Some enterprise customers who disabled browser-based Excel list export in their server configurations were finding that the prompt to download the .sopro file to complete export workflows was not appearing for users. This issue was resolved. (PMG-898785)
Contact Management
- During an advanced contact search, entering a name in the Set field and then clicking the Set link was causing an issue. When the list of matching sets opened and the user selected a set, the list was not closing automatically. This issue was resolved. (PMG-664011)
- An issue with contacts having plus (+) signs in their names was resolved. When these contacts were entered in SmartOffice fields, the list of matching names that automatically appeared was not displaying the plus sign. (PMG-881628)
- Users who customized the Personal Information and Business Information portlets in contact records were finding that some fields in those portlets were missing after a recent SmartOffice upgrade. This issue was resolved. (PMG-887071)
- An issue with the Remarks field on the contact Personal content link was resolved. The issue occurred when a user maximized the field, entered text containing HTML formatting, and then selected the Remove Format button. After saving these changes, any attempt to view an address record in the contact was resulting in an error. (PMG-890043)
- Selection of multiple records by shift-clicking in a contact list was not working when the list was sorted by the Preferred E-mail column. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892792)
- Users who tried to change the layout of the contact Add'l Personal content link by selecting a choice from the Template drop-down list were finding that their choice was not being applied. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892948)
- When a user linked a contact to another contact as a spouse, SmartOffice was transferring the contact's address information to the spouse record but not the phone number data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-897456)
Dynamic Reports
- An issue with Dynamic Reports using the Summary report layout was resolved. When a report was grouped by more than one column, clicking the group hyperlinks in the results was displaying a blank dialog box. (PMG-866548)
- When users added certain Dynamic Reports to a customized business Detail content link, the reports were appearing blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-889592)
- An issue with custom-sorted Dynamic Reports was resolved. When users selected Open Report Filter on the results page and opened the custom sort options, the selected columns were not in the correct order. (PMG-897903)
Home Page
- An issue that was preventing charts from displaying in Dynamic Report portlets on the SmartOffice home page was resolved. (PMG-893551)
SmartOffice Sync for Microsoft Exchange
Note: These changes apply only to enterprise customers who use SmartOffice's built-in Exchange sync feature.
- When the Exchange user name in a sync setup was updated while a regular sync operation was in progress, SmartOffice was not displaying the confirmation message stating that the sync mode would change. This issue was resolved. (PMG-869804)
SmartPad
- From the search box, users who selected Tools > Notes (Last 30 Days) and then selected Advanced Search were finding that selecting All as the date range was still displaying notes from the last 30 days. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893792)
- An issue that resulted in an Advice option displaying for SmartPad notes and other records was resolved. This feature is normally disabled in most SmartOffice server configurations, but SmartOffice was ignoring those server settings. (PMG-895546)
SmartCalendar
Enhancements
- Enhanced activity privacy for contacts: When a user marks a contact as Private, any activities linked to the contact are now automatically privatized. Previously, those activities had to be privatized manually to prevent other users with access to the user's calendar from seeing the activities' contact names and subject lines. (PMG-738544)
- Tracking of activity status changes: When an activity's status is updated, SmartOffice now adds an entry to the Activity History section of the Activity Notes dialog box, enabling users to track status changes over time. (PMG-892476)
- Spouse added as dependent in some activity outcome workflows: In specific instances, when a spouse is added through the Comprehensive Activity Outcome Wizard, the spouse is now created as a dependent in SmartOffice rather than a contact. This occurs when the user selects the Obtained Permission to Keep in Touch and Fact Finder Completed/Updated outcome options in the wizard. (PMG-897317)
Resolved Issues
- An issue with the Add Important Dates to the Calendar utility was resolved. When users selected the Contact DOB and Ignore Year options, entered a specific date range, and then ran the utility, the progress bar was displaying an "error processing request" message. (PMG-892090)
SmartOpportunities
Enhancements
- Role filtering for advisor opportunities: On the advisor Opportunities tab, users can now filter the list to display only those opportunities in which the advisor has a specified role (e.g., primary advisor, writing advisor, etc.). To filter the list, select a choice from the new Role drop-down list. (PMG-883476)
- Add to Set command for opportunity stage history reports: When viewing the results of a Stage History-category Dynamic Report, users can select the new Menu > Add to Set command to add the contacts linked to the selected records to a set. (PMG-894214)
- Opportunity stage data in activity history reports: Columns from the Opportunity Stage table are now available for use in Activity History-category Dynamic Reports. (PMG-895344)
Resolved Issues
- Time discrepancies that users were noticing in the opportunity stage history were resolved. (PMG-893908)
- An issue with activities created from opportunity stage actions was resolved. When the action setup specified a long activity description (more than 3,000 characters), the system was truncating the description in newly created activities. (PMG-897124)
SmartLeads
Resolved Issues
- While performing an advanced leads search, users who selected All from the Status drop-down list were seeing an empty leads list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892212)
Advisors/Agencies
Featured Enhancements
Ability to Edit Carbon Copy List for Multiple Advisors/Agencies
The Carbon Copy List feature can now be configured for two or more advisors or agencies at a time. On the Advisor List or Agency List, select multiple records, and then select Menu > Communication > Carbon Copy Mass Assignment/Removal. (PMG-816817)
Other Enhancements
General
- New option for presale status updates: Administrators can now set up SmartOffice so that the status of a presale activity is not updated when the status of the linked pending case changes. To enable this option, go to Setup > Policy/Case Setup > Follow-up > Presale Activity/Proposals and select Do Not Cross Update PCM/Proposal Status.
When enabled, this option leaves the presale activity status as Converted to Pending Case when the linked case moves to an Underwriting or Inactive stage. (PMG-875101)
- SmartPad portlet for custom agency page layouts: When customizing the layout of the agency Detail content link, users can now add the SmartPad Notes portlet to display notes linked to the agency. (PMG-890159)
- New columns for license reports: Users can now add supervisor data to license Dynamic Reports. When creating a License-category report (from the Advisor/Agency report family), select the Supervisor table to view and select the new columns. (PMG-890481)
- New advisor merge codes: Users can now pull data into correspondence from the six custom fields on the advisor Add'l Detail content link. The following new merge codes expand to display that data:
- F\_AGENT\_ALPHAKEY
- F\_AGENT\_ALPHANUM1
- F\_AGENT\_ALPHANUM2
- F\_AGENT\_ALPHANUM3
- F\_AGENT\_ALPHANUM4
- F\_AGENT\_ALPHANUM5
(PMG-891093)
Resolved Issues
General
- In presale activities for disability insurance, the Benefit section was displaying fields related to life insurance. This issue was resolved. (PMG-890284)
- In some instances, users who tried to save new presale activities were encountering an error stating: "Result Data does not match with the data stored in SmartOffice." This issue was resolved. (PMG-892075)
- When an advisor record linked to active and disabled user accounts was linked to a pending case, the User Assignments section of the advisor record was displaying the name of the disabled user. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892270)
- An issue with agency records imported into SmartOffice or added during creation of an advisor record was resolved. These agency records were not available for selection in the Company field of contact and business records. (PMG-894567)
- In specific instances, an error was occurring when an Enterprise View user created an advisor in a child office. This issue was resolved. (PMG-898051)
SmartPolicies
Enhancements
- Referral advisor merge code: A new ReferralAdvisor merge code enables users to include policy referral advisor information in correspondence. (PMG-880350)
- Policy date warning message: When a policy date is updated, SmartOffice now displays a warning if the new date does not fall within the effective and expiration dates of the linked product. (PMG-885282)
- Annuity enhancements: Several improvements to annuity tracking have been introduced:
- Two new annuity-specific fields, Client Account # and Commission Basis, are available on the Benefits content link. These fields are also available to be added to policy and pending case page layouts, lists and Dynamic Reports.
- In annuity product records, several choices were added to the Type drop-down list: Fixed Immediate, Indexed Variable, Market Value Adjustment and Registered Index.
- In annuity riders, the Current Amount field now accepts decimal values (previously it accepted integers only).
(PMG-891095, PMG-892210)
- Rider options in rider reports: The Rider Options column is now available for use in Rider-category policy Dynamic Reports. (PMG-892605)
- Annuity rider enhancements: Several improvements were made to the rider information located on the annuity policy Benefits content link:
- The Rider List was renamed Rider/Feature List.
- The Rider/Feature Detail dialog box now includes a new Joint option, and the character limit of the Remarks field was increased to 4,000.
(PMG-893254)
- New policy relationship roles: When adding entries to the Policy Relationship List of a policy or pending case, users can now choose from several new interested party roles:
- Administrator
- Contingent Annuitant/Insured
- Contingent Indirect Participant
- CoParticipant
- Correspondence Entity
- Coverage Insured
- Custodian for UGMA
- Decedent
- Designated Participant
- Executor
- Indirect Participant
- Insured
- Investment Advisor
- Joint Insured
- Joint Owner
- Key Contact
- Legal Guardian
- Owner/Annuitant or Insured
- Participant
- Payee
- Plan Name
- Plan Participant
- Plan Sponsor
- Power of Attorney
- Primary Beneficiary
- Registered Investment Adviser
- Successor Participant
- Tertiary Beneficiary
(PMG-894650)
Resolved Issues
- Users who selected the Menu > Advanced Options > Copy Policy command were finding that the copy process was hanging in some instances. The issue was occurring when no contract was linked to the policy's advisor and the user tried to create the contract during the copy workflow. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892076)
- An issue that was preventing users from filtering on the policy Inception Date column or adding that column to Dynamic Reports or list layouts was resolved. (PMG-892194)
- Issues with the Proposed Class column on policy and pending case lists were resolved. In some instances, the column was displaying a numeral instead of the proposed class. In others, the column's value didn't match the value displayed on the policy or case record. (PMG-892711)
- When a Dynamic Report was set up to look for specific text in policy notes and retrieve the associated policies, SmartOffice was not always returning policies as expected. The issue was occurring when the text specified in the report filter appeared only in notes not linked to a policy's primary contact (e.g., system-generated notes). This issue was resolved. (PMG-894105)
- When users modified or deleted the Flat Extra/1000 value on the policy Detail content link, the system was not refreshing the Comm Modal value accordingly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-894667)
- When a policy's premium mode was set to Semi-Monthly, SmartOffice was incorrectly using a x6 multiplier instead of a x24 multiplier to calculate values such as annualized premium. This issue was resolved. (PMG-894935)
- Two issues with policy-related merge codes were resolved:
- The AllTrustees and Trustee merge codes were displaying nicknames.
- The NetDeathBenefit merge code was not displaying commas in benefit amounts.
(PMG-895310)
Insurance Products and Carriers
Resolved Issues
- On the Product Settings content link, the Calculate Benefit and Calculate Cash options were available for product types other than Life and Critical Illness. This issue was resolved. (PMG-877256)
SmartCaseManager
Featured Enhancements
New Requirement Type for Health Records
A new underwriting requirement type, Electronic Health Records, was added to the system. Users can create requirements of this type to distinguish requests for health records from requests for full attending physician statements.
(PMG-895435)
Other Enhancements
- Ability to include Required Of data in status merge codes: When defining the data that is displayed when PCM status merge codes are expanded, administrators can now add Required Of information using the new Required Of drop-down list in Setup > Policy/Case Setup > PCM Status Merge Code Definition.
(PMG-890706)
- Ability to edit requirement remarks in Edit Mode: When using Edit Mode to create a requirement or edit multiple requirements at once, users can now modify the Remarks column (note that any existing text formatting will be lost).
(PMG-892287)
- New pending case status choices: Several pending case status choices were added to the system (the associated stage for each is in parentheses):
- Pending Underwriting (Underwriting)
- Pending Application (Underwriting)
- Non-Transaction Account (Issued)
The Non-Transaction Account status can be used when, for example, a client pays to put a policy inforce using electronic funds transfer (ETF) but the payment is rejected by the bank because the account is a non-transaction account. (PMG-894684)
Resolved Issues
- An issue with the settings in Policy/Case Setup > PCM Workflows > Requirement Completion Workflow was resolved. Any requirement completion workflow that did not have the Required Of field set to All was not working for users when they updated requirements. (PMG-892222)
- When trying to add multiple requirements containing long descriptions to a pending case, users were encountering the error "The description exceeds 1024 characters. Please remove some requirements from selection." This issue was resolved. (PMG-893137)
- When creating Manual-type pending case requirements, users who copied text from HTML e-mail messages and pasted it into the Requirement(s) section were seeing HTML tags in the pasted text. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893463)
- When a user entered incorrect data on the pending case Benefits tab, the error message was incorrectly appearing in the Rider List section of the record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893663)
- In custom pending case page layouts, the system was ignoring the height that the layout creator specified for the Underwriting Requirement List portlet. This issue was resolved. (PMG-895118)
- Several issues with group requirements were resolved:
- When users added a record in Policy/Case Setup > PCM Workflows > Requirement Completion Workflow, the Group Requirement option in the Requirement Type drop-down list was mislabeled Group Stage.
- When users finished adding a group requirement completion workflow, the new workflow was not appearing in the Requirement Completion Workflow list.
- After being added to a group policy, group requirements were not appearing in the Insurance > Requirement Follow-ups list when users searched by requirement manager and filtered the results to show only group requirements.
- In group policies, users who viewed the details of the Primary Advisor entry in the Policy Advisor List were finding that the Office Code, Marketing Mgr and Region Code fields were blank, even when the linked advisor record itself contained values for those fields.
(PMG-895551)
- When the layout of the pending case Detail content link was customized, users were unable to modify the Plan Name field. This issue was resolved. (PMG-895904)
SmartBenefits
Featured Enhancements
Ability to Retain Historical Group Plan Data
Users can now renew a group plan in an existing policy while retaining the old plan information for historical purposes. On the policy's Group Plans list, select a plan, and then select Menu > Renew Group Plan to choose the new plan.
Note that you can select the same group plan; the restriction to selecting a plan only once for the same group policy has been removed as part of this enhancement.
The newly selected plan is added to the Group Plans list with an Active status, while the old plan remains on the list with a new status of Inactive. Group certificates linked to the inactive plan also become inactive, and status dates for both plans are updated to the current date (to see status and status date, you may need to customize the Group Plans list to add those columns). (PMG-890216)
Other Enhancements
- Show Benefit command in more locations: While viewing the Group Plan List of a group policy, users now have access to the Menu > Show Benefit command from any group plan content link, not just the List content link. (PMG-890214)
SmartWholesaler
Resolved Issues
- When the layout of the firm Detail content link was customized to include the Tax ID field, users who tried to enter values in that field were encountering an error when they tried to save their changes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893442)
SmartCommissions
Enhancements
General
- Enhanced display of first commission payments: The First Commission column, which is available in certain commission lists and reports, now displays the first commission payment on a policy for all types of commission transactions. Previously, the column displayed data for base commissions only. (PMG-890873)
Carrier Posting
- Column showing carrier posting processed date: SmartOffice can now indicate when a carrier posting was originally processed so that users can avoid processing it a second time by accident. A date column labeled Originally Processed On was added to the Carrier Commission Posting table and is now available on carrier posting lists and Dynamic Reports. (PMG-890876)
- Transaction remarks copied from speed receipts: When a user moves a commission transaction from Speed Receipts into Carrier Posting, SmartOffice now copies the contents of the transaction's Remarks field over into the carrier posting transaction. This enhancement makes the remarks reportable in the paid commission transaction. (PMG-893404)
Resolved Issues
General
- Sorting and grouping issues affecting Advisor Commission-category Dynamic Reports were resolved. (PMG-871688)
- After running an Advisor Commission Check-category Dynamic Report, users were unable to send correspondence from the list of results. This issue was resolved. (PMG-882206)
- The Mass Projection utility was processing policies that were in the Inactive stage. This issue was resolved. (PMG-889742)
- An issue that was causing the Mass Projection utility to generate duplicate commission transactions was resolved. The issue was occurring in certain instances when projections were processed in the Job Queue. (PMG-891334)
- An issue that was preventing the Mass Projection utility from generating commission projections for group policies was resolved. (PMG-894323)
Batch Processing
- Commission batches were taking a long time to process when the Include Adjustment Entries option was selected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893244)
- In some instances, the check amount for a Smart Check was different from the actual total of the receivables. This issue was resolved. (PMG-896147)
- After a commission batch was processed and posted, users who e-mailed commission statements to advisors were encountering an issue. The date in the statement's file name was not matching the batch's posting date in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-897563)
Carrier Posting
- An error that users were encountering when adding Adjustment-type commission transactions to carrier postings was resolved. (PMG-895668)
SmartInvestments
Enhancements
Investment Accounts
- Higher character limit for account remarks: On the Account Detail content link, the character limit for the Remarks field was increased to 4,000 from 512. (PMG-892046)
Resolved Issues
Investment Securities
- Internet Explorer users were encountering layout issues when they tried to enter the details of a new Blended Index-type investment security record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-891834)
Integrations and Data Services
Featured Enhancements
IP Telephony Integration
SmartOffice now integrates with many popular PBX IP telephony systems, allowing users to dial calls from SmartOffice through their IP phones. For many phone systems, SmartOffice can also automatically match incoming calls to the right SmartOffice contact and display a call tracking page, enabling users to enter notes, upload documents and create a calendar activity to track the call. For a list of supported phone systems and other information, see Integrations - IP Telephony. (PMG-768326)
Other Enhancements
Inforce Policy Import
- National Life policy feed improvement: SmartOffice now processes school district data from the National Life policy feed. (PMG-891913)
Investment Data Downloads
- Enhanced Broadridge data import: An improved integration with Broadridge's investment data aggregation service is now available, enabling SmartOffice users to receive automated downloads directly in SmartOffice. (PMG-846619)
SmartIntegrator and SmartXchange
- Additional SmartPad properties exposed: The RecommendationDate and DisclosureDate properties of the SmartPad object can now be accessed by external applications through the SmartIntegrator API. (PMG-891830)
- Additional annuity property exposed: The ClientAccount property of the Annuity object can now be accessed by external applications through the SmartIntegrator API. (PMG-892745)
- Additional commission band data accessible through SmartIntegrator: Developers of external applications can now access more SmartOffice commission band data through the SmartIntegrator API. The following properties of the CommBand object are now available: AgeFrom. AgeThru, FaceFrom and FaceThru. (PMG-896295)
Resolved Issues
Investment Data Downloads
- An issue was preventing investment security prices from updating in SmartOffice after processing of investment data downloads. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893411)
- When no custodian information was present for an investment account downloaded through a data feed, the system was deleting any existing custodian information in the associated SmartOffice investment account. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893697)
Pending Case Downloads
- When an office processed pending case downloads and the office was later put into read-only mode, SmartOffice was still processing downloads and updating cases. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892278)
- In some instances, the status of cases in SmartOffice was not matching the last update sent from the carrier. The order in which the system was processing case downloads was different from the order in which the carrier was sending them. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892403)
- When the Update Case Status Only option was selected on a carrier's PCM Options content link (under DataXchange/Resource Data Options), SmartOffice was not processing interested party, service provider, requirement, case manager assignment and policy note data when inserting new cases linked to that carrier into the database. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893176)
- In some instances, when multiple records for the same product existed in SmartOffice, the system was not properly linking product information to downloaded pending cases processed using Side-by-Side Processing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-893483)
- When the attachment data in a downloaded pending case contained an e-mail address enclosed in < and > symbols, the e-mail address was not being recorded in the SmartPad when the case was processed. In addition, the downloaded case remained in a Processing status. These issues were resolved. (PMG-894279)
SmartOffice Anywhere Changes
There were no SmartOffice Anywhere changes in this release.