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Last updated: 2025-12-03


Release Notes - SmartOffice 2018 Release 2


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.


May 9, 2018


  • Initial publication.

Release Overview


SmartOffice 2018 Release 2 features an overhauled page layout customization feature in SmartOffice Pro, as well as the ability to customize the SmartOffice Anywhere navigation menu on mobile devices. For agencies, this release includes more comprehensive tracking of policy changes in the Audit Trail, pending case correspondence improvements, and more. This release also resolves performance, user interface and other issues identified in SmartOffice 2018 Release 1 and earlier releases. 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



SmartOffice Anywhere



System Requirements


There are no other changes to system requirements for this release. For current system requirements, see System Requirements.


Important Changes to Default Settings


This section highlights notable changes to SmartOffice settings and changes to system default settings that may alter existing workflows, reports and other areas of the system.


  • The Print List command now defaults to the Print All option when no record in the list has been specifically selected. Previously, SmartOffice was automatically selecting the currently highlighted record and printing only that row by default. (PMG-752523)

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


Revamped Page Layout Customization

SmartOffice's page layout customization feature has been significantly redesigned to make it easier for users to design and manage page layouts.



Users can now do the following when editing a layout:


  • Create a layout with up to four columns.
  • Edit fields in predefined portlets.
  • Find portlets and fields more quickly in one combined, searchable list.
  • Drag portlets and fields into and out of the layout from the list.
  • Rearrange portlets and fields in the layout by dragging them.
  • Adjust the widths of certain fields.
  • Add Dynamic Reports from any report family.
  • Undo layout changes.
  • Edit any other page layout quickly by selecting it from a drop-down list.
  • Edit a layout created by another user in the same office.
  • Prevent other users in the office from modifying the layout.
  • Make the layout a favorite record so that it is easier to find.

In addition, users have these new capabilities for managing page layout templates:


  • View a layout and its details together on one page.
  • See a list of users who have applied a particular page layout template.
  • See a list of templates applied by a particular user (and reset a template for that user's account).
  • (Enterprise customers only) Replace default content link labels with template names.

For more information, refer to the Page Layout Customization topic. (PMG-746460, PMG-796058, PMG-796067, PMG-796068, PMG-796071, PMG-800907)


Other Enhancements


General

  • Better list printouts: Printed lists now display more records on a single page. This was accomplished by moving the page number and copyright information closer to the bottom of the printout and reducing the amount of space taken by the Records Shown count at the top. (PMG-737378)
  • Print All by default: The Print List command now defaults to the Print All option when no record in the list is specifically selected. Previously, SmartOffice was automatically selecting the currently highlighted record and printing only that row by default. (PMG-752523)
  • Contact benefit information in page layouts: When creating custom page layouts for contact records, users can now include useful benefit information by adding the Insurance Totals and Investments Totals portlets. In addition, individual fields from the Contact Benefit table, such as the Total Premium field, can now be added to any portlet. (PMG-801482)
  • Key relations in page layouts: Key Relations portlets are now available for use in all custom page layouts. (PMG-801725)

Resolved Issues


General

  • In printed lists containing subtotaled columns, the subtotal values were formatted using a large font, which was causing those numbers to extend into adjacent columns. This issue was resolved. (PMG-737368)
  • In some instances, users who customized the Quick Action Corner were finding that their buttons were no longer appearing on a single line. This issue was resolved. (PMG-775044)
  • When the page layout of the contact Personal content link was customized to include the Investment Positions portlet, printing the content link was displaying incorrect position data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-786157)
  • On the contact Custom content link, users who selected the Menu > Print command were finding that sections containing scroll bars were appearing that way in the printout, i.e., with some fields not displayed. This issue was resolved so that printouts display all fields in these sections. (PMG-789212)
  • An issue affecting masked Social Security numbers in contact records was resolved. When users clicked inside the SS # field to view the number, SmartOffice was treating that action as a modification of the record and prompting users to save their changes before they could navigate elsewhere. (PMG-789569)
  • When creating custom page layouts, users were finding that the Business Name field was not available for use in custom portlets. This issue was resolved. (PMG-790125)
  • Chrome users were encountering an issue in which changes to records were not being saved properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-790996)
  • Incorrect placement of check boxes in the record merge dialog box was resolved. This issue affected policy, carrier, product, rider and underwriting requirement record merges. (PMG-791711)
  • An issue that was preventing users from posting files larger than 2 MB to SmartOffice using browser-based posting was resolved. (PMG-795875)
  • On record lists, the system was not displaying numeric values right-aligned. In addition, when lists were printed, numeric values did not contain commas. These issues were resolved. (PMG-796689)
  • In the Deleted Records area of the system, the Deleted Activities list was displaying only those activities in which the signed-in user was the primary participant. This issue was resolved. (PMG-801805)
  • An issue that was causing buttons throughout SmartOffice Pro to appear stretched was resolved. (PMG-802103)

Contact Management

  • When adding a contact record from the Contact List, users were finding that the Search for an existing contact record button in the New - Contact dialog box was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-768407)
  • Two issues with the Hide Current Contact feature were resolved:

- While viewing the results of a contact search, users who selected the Hide Current Contact command were seeing a blank dialog box that quickly closed. In addition, the contact list was refreshing to display all records instead of only those records that matched the search, and the selected contact was not being hidden.


- When attempting to unhide a contact from the Hidden Contact area of the system, users were seeing a blank dialog box, and the contact was remaining hidden.



(PMG-788322)


  • An issue with business key relations was resolved. When using the Add Key Relation to Employee Census command on a key relation, users were seeing a blank dialog box. (PMG-789705)
  • In some instances, changing the business in a contact's Company field was not removing the contact from the business's employee census. In addition, when the user tried to manually delete the old employee census entry, SmartOffice was clearing the contact's Company field. These issues were resolved. (PMG-796123)

Correspondence

  • An issue with recipient overrides in Step 5 of the Correspondence Wizard was resolved. The issue occurred when a contact was moved from the problem recipient list to the Confirmed Recipients list and was then deleted from that list. When finalizing the correspondence in Windows, users were seeing the deleted recipient in the list of confirmed recipients. (PMG-768153)
  • An issue with the «AddressBN» merge code was resolved. When sending print correspondence to multiple contacts at once, users who opted to send the letter to the recipients' business addresses were finding that the merge code was expanding to display preferred residence addresses instead. (PMG-789702)
  • An issue that was preventing non-administrator users from sending e-mail attachments through SmartOffice was resolved. (PMG-791252)
  • In offices with Protect Communication History enabled, users who selected the All Contacts option in Step 1 of the Correspondence Wizard were finding that archived contacts were being included in the list of recipients. This issue was resolved. (PMG-792069)
  • When the Spouse merge code was included in a label template, generating labels based on that template for large numbers of contacts was taking a long time. This issue was resolved. (PMG-794541)

Data Import/Export

  • A list export issue was resolved. In some instances, users were encountering a message stating that their export requests were being queued, but the process was ending with no export file being generated. This message was removed, and export files are now generated as they were previously. (PMG-801782)

Dynamic Reports

  • While creating a filter in the Dynamic Report Setup wizard, users who selected the AlphaNum1, AlphaNum2 or Alphakey column were seeing blank choices when they clicked the Enter Value drop-down list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-792838)

Home Page

  • When Dynamic Reports were added to a shared home page tab and the tab was later unshared, the system was automatically privatizing those Dynamic Reports. This was producing errors for users of other shared tabs that contained those reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-800478)

SmartPad

  • When a list included a column displaying SmartPad notes, colored text in notes was appearing in a larger font when the list was printed. (PMG-662152)

SmartCalendar


Resolved Issues


  • For some users, changing a task to a calendar activity was making the activity's Start Time field blank and the End Time field read-only. This issue was resolved. (PMG-663845)
  • The Minutes Spent column was displaying data in some Calendar-family Dynamic Reports but not in others. This issue was resolved. (PMG-792041)
  • On the calendar Day view, the missing Maximize/Minimize Window button on the timed activity section was restored. (PMG-793545)

SmartLeads


Resolved Issues


  • An issue with manually assigning a lead from the Unassigned Leads List was resolved. Users who assigned the lead to themselves and then accepted it were finding that the list was not refreshing to update the lead's status. (PMG-788872)

SmartOpportunities


Resolved Issues


  • An issue that some users were encountering on the opportunity Related Resources/Competition content link was resolved. Records added to the Related Resources section were not appearing unless the user manually refreshed the page or navigated away and then navigated back. (PMG-770359)
  • An issue affecting offices configured with a default opportunity process was resolved. While creating an opportunity record, users who clicked the More button in the New - Opportunity dialog box were finding that the Process drop-down lists under Add Additional Opportunities were not set to the default process. (PMG-780913)
  • An issue was occurring when the page layout of the opportunity Detail content link was customized to include the Opportunity Activity List portlet. Users who created an activity from that portlet were finding that the system was prefilling the Subject and Description fields. This issue was resolved. (PMG-788964)
  • An issue with the Mass Modifying Opportunity Owner command was resolved. After selecting the command, users who selected the Change Opportunity Owner option and then selected the current opportunity owner were encountering a message box with no text. (PMG-789694)
  • In the Opportunity Notes dialog box, users were encountering an issue after clicking the Open Link icon to view the details of the opportunity linked to a note. In the opportunity detail dialog box, the Menu > Link to Existing Pending Case/Policy command was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-789977)
  • Users who did not have the Reporting on Multiple Users' Data user right were unable to use the side menu Reports > Opportunity Reports feature. This issue was resolved. (PMG-790151)

SmartEvents


Resolved Issues


  • When a user created an event from the Add New menu, the New Event dialog box contained an unnecessary scroll bar, and clicking the OK button was not automatically displaying the event Detail content link. This and several layout issues were resolved. (PMG-788368)
  • Tasks set up in event templates were not being copied to new events based on those templates. This issue was resolved. (PMG-791865)

Advisors/Agencies


Featured Enhancements


New Carbon Copy List Setting for Correspondence

When adding a contact to an advisor's Carbon Copy List, users can now specify that the contact should be the only recipient of regular correspondence sent to the advisor. While adding a contact, select the new Check here if the contact above is the only recipient of correspondence option.



(PMG-746614)


Mass Modification for Presale Activities

The Menu > Advanced Options > Mass Modify command is now available on the Presale Activity/Proposal List, enabling users to update the status of multiple presale records at once. The fields that can be modified are: Status, Status Date, Action, Action Date. (PMG-790592)


Other Enhancements


General

  • Presale field tooltips: On the presale activity Detail content link, users can now point to the Result Class field (in the Results section) and the Quoted Face Amount(s) field (in the Additional Result Section) to see a tooltip showing the field's value. Because these fields tend to contain more characters than the field length can display, the tooltip enables users to see the full field value quickly. (PMG-673433)
  • Ability to export advisor appointments, licenses and more: In advisor and agency records, the Menu > List Options > Export List command was added to the Options menu on the Advisor Contract List, Appointment List, License Information list, Continuing Education Credit Information list (advisors only) and Compliance Status list. (PMG-777177)
  • Production Dashboard improvements: The Production Dashboard can now be configured to display inforce production data using the active stage date instead of the policy date. In Policy/Case Setup, go to the Production Dashboard Setup - LOB Options section and choose a date option from the new Inforce Production Date drop-down list.

(PMG-791109)


  • Mass modification for more advisor fields: Two additional advisor/producer fields can now be mass modified by users who have the appropriate rights: Gender and Nationality. (PMG-797507)

SmartView for Advisors

  • Integrations for advisor accounts: Advisors who access SmartOffice using a SmartView for Advisors - SmartOffice Format user account now have access to integrations. An administrator with the ability to assign licenses can enable integrations for these advisors on the User Rights content link of the user account record. (PMG-775107)

Resolved Issues


General

  • After displaying the results of an Advisor/Agency-category Dynamic Report, the system was not allowing users to mass modify advisor custom fields from the results list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-788631)
  • On presale activity records, when users selected or modified the advisor or insured contact and then clicked another tab without first saving the changes, the system was automatically saving the changes and displaying the new tab. This issue was resolved so that the system now asks the user whether changes should be saved. (PMG-788716)
  • On the advisor request Detail content link, when a user opened a requirement record and then clicked the Form hyperlink, the Forms List was opening, but the command for adding a form was missing. (PMG-793371)
  • An issue with merging duplicate advisor records following an advisor import was resolved. When an advisor with contracts was selected as the source record for the merge and an imported advisor was selected as the target, the contracts were not being copied to the merged record. (PMG-801445)
  • When the supervisor assigned to an advisor was modified more than once, the advisor SmartPad note recording the change was displaying incorrect information in the Modified By and Modified On columns. This issue was resolved. (PMG-801919)

SmartPolicies


Featured Enhancements


Expanded Policy Change Tracking (Audit Trail)


The SmartPad Audit Trail feature now tracks changes to policy record fields more comprehensively. Many fields from the policy Basic Information and Benefits content links were added to the list of tracked fields (for details, see Contacts and Businesses - SmartPad). In addition, the Policy Notes and Pending Case Notes dialog boxes now feature a Changes tab for easy tracking of these field changes.



(PMG-801761)


Resolved Issues


  • Two issues with policy imports were resolved:

- Company information was not being linked properly to imported insured contacts. Now, when the company exists as a business record in SmartOffice, that business is linked via the contact Company field. When the company does not exist as a business record, the name is still added to the contact Company field.


- The Source field of an insured contact record was always being set to Imported-Modifiable, regardless of the source specified in the import file. Now, when source information exists in the import file and is mapped for import, the contact source field is updated accordingly in SmartOffice. When the import file contains no source (or when source data is not mapped), SmartOffice sets the contact Source field to Imported-Modifiable.



(PMG-635768)


  • An issue with creating custom page layouts for the policy Basic Information content link was resolved. Users attempting to add columns to a custom group were finding that the Value As Of, Paid to Date and Processing Type columns were not appearing in column search results. (PMG-773740)
  • After importing riders, users were finding that the hierarchy was not being automatically built and commissions were not being automatically projected, even when the riders had valid rates defined. This issue was resolved. (PMG-785155)
  • An issue with the Create New Applicant option during the policy creation process was resolved. After entering carrier and plan information but no primary contact, users who clicked the Next button were being prompted incorrectly to enter carrier and product information. The system now correctly prompts users to provide the missing primary contact information. (PMG-788852)
  • On the Policy Transactions content link of a policy, an issue with creating commissionable premium payment transactions was resolved. When a user left the mandatory Premium field blank and clicked the Gen Comm. or Gen Posting button, SmartOffice was displaying a message stating, "Your action cannot be completed." The system now prompts the user to provide the missing information instead. (PMG-788866)
  • Issues with the Policy Add and Pending Case Add dialog boxes were resolved. When contacts were cleared from the Interested Parties section, the system was not clearing their gender information, and the Last Name and First Name fields were becoming read-only. (PMG-791875)
  • In the setup dialog box for policy and pending case e-mail correspondence, the Send form letter as E-mail body and Send form letter as E-mail attachment option labels were misaligned. This issue was resolved. (PMG-796870)
  • In the Policy Audit and Policy Detail PDF reports, headings for policy types were labeled incorrectly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-800827)
  • In policy records, users who tried to add addresses to records in the Policy Insured List or Policy Relationship List were encountering an error stating that they were not authorized to do so. This issue was resolved. (PMG-801616)
  • On variable life/annuity policies, users who viewed the Detail content link of a subaccount were finding that the Purchase Date, Purchase Cost, Shares/Date, Price/Date and Current Value fields were editable when they should be read-only. In addition, clicking the Subaccount content link was producing no result. These issues were resolved. (PMG-802602)

Insurance Products and Carriers


Resolved Issues


  • When users opened a carrier underwriting guideline record and tried to print the last page, the printout was not displaying the requirements in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-789926)
  • Users were encountering an error when clicking the e-mail address of a resource-office carrier to send a message. This issue was resolved. (PMG-794285)
  • Issues affecting resource-office subscribers in office hierarchies during local carrier, product and rider migration were resolved:

- When a child-office user tried to migrate a parent-office record, the message stating that such migration cannot occur was appearing blank.


- When a child-office user tried to migrate a child-office record, the message stating that the process was successful was appearing blank.



(PMG-796649)



SmartCaseManager


Featured Enhancements


Ability to Copy Recipients on the Fly in Pending Case E-mails

When sending e-mail correspondence from a pending case, users can now manually add CC and BCC recipients. After starting the correspondence workflow, select recipients and a letter template as usual, and then click the Add CC/BCC hyperlink in the options dialog box.



(PMG-147522)


Ability to Copy Requirements to Other Cases

, and then select Copy Requirement. When prompted, search for and select the destination policy or case.


The copied requirements retain certain information from the originals (e.g., remarks, status, required of, follow-up date), but SmartOffice automatically updates information such as the policy number and insured contact to match the destination record. (PMG-576329)


Other Enhancements


  • New columns for delivery requirement follow-ups list: The Carrier Expiration and Office Expiration columns from the pending case Delivery content link are now available as columns that can be added to the delivery requirements follow-up list. (PMG-752656)
  • New rate reduction request status: A pending case status called Inforce - Rate Reduction Request was added to the system. The status can be used in situations in which the case is inforce but additional work is necessary to try to obtain a reduction in the rating. (PMG-780367)
  • More flexible visibility options for requirement workflows: In the dialog box for setting up Quick Receipt requirement workflows, the Visible to Advisors field is now a drop-down list containing blank, Yes and No choices (previously, it was a check box). When the field is left blank, the workflow will not alter the existing Visible to Advisors setting on a requirement. (PMG-784396)
  • Requirement notes preserved in formalized child cases: For informal applications, any notes associated with requirements shared from a parent case to a child case now appear in the pending case created after the child case is formalized. (PMG-788097)
  • New policy relationship role: A role called Trustee of Minor was added to the system for assignment to contacts listed in the Policy Relationship List of a policy record. (PMG-791744)
  • New policy status choices: The following policy statuses were added to the system (the associated stage for each is in parentheses):

- Active - Preliminary Term (Active)


- Active - Some Insureds Died (Active)


- Active Rider Terminated - Policy Converted to NFO (Inactive)


- Application Submitted (Proposed)


- Attained Age Conversion (Active)


- Block Conversion (Inactive)


- Claim Pending Without Policy Termination (Active)


- Conversion with Same Number (Inactive)


- Departure Extension (Active)


- Disability claim pending without policy termination (Active)


- Exercised (Inactive)


- Formal Proposed (Underwriting)


- Fully Paid Up (Active)


- Further Information Unobtainable Rejection (Inactive)


- HO Withdrew (Inactive)


- Home Office Cancellation (Inactive)


- Illustration Declined (Inactive)


- Invalid (Inactive)


- Issued with Changes (Issued)


- Issued with Requirements (Issued)


- Lapsing on a Daily Cost Basis (Inactive)


- Member Left (Inactive)


- Offer Sent (Approved)


- Paid Up Rider Terminated - Policy Converted to NFO (Inactive)


- Pending Issue (Underwriting)


- Pending Transmission (Underwriting)


- Producer Withdrew (Inactive)


- Re-Entry Pending (Underwriting)


- Reconsider and Approve (Underwriting)


- Request Refused (Inactive)


- Under Disability (Inactive)


- Underwriting Complete, Policy Paid (Underwriting)


- Underwriting Incomplete, Policy Paid (Underwriting)



(PMG-801787)


  • Column showing latest Paid date: A new Paid column is available for use in policy and pending case lists. This is a non-database column that displays the date of the most recent Paid-status entry in the policy's status history. (PMG-801931)

Resolved Issues


  • Some policy and pending case custom fields were displaying the drop-down choices configured for contact custom fields. This issue was resolved. (PMG-761080)
  • An issue with the advisor appointment/contract/license/compliance check that occurs after pending case creation was resolved. The issue occurred when users opted to create advisor requests to resolve outstanding issues. The system was not informing these users that no agency manager was found for the licensing request, even when none were configured under Licensing/Contracting Setup > Establish Licensing/Contract Managers in Policy/Case Setup. (PMG-787360)
  • Pending case status reports were displaying dates in a format different from that specified in the user's preferences. This issue was resolved. (PMG-788722)
  • An issue that was improperly causing certain products to be unavailable for selection in new pending cases was resolved. (PMG-789695)
  • An issue with sending printed correspondence to the primary contact of a pending case was resolved. Users who selected Business Address as the recipient's address were finding that the system was addressing the letter to the contact's preferred address instead. (PMG-793008)
  • An issue with the readability of requirements on printed case status reports was resolved. (PMG-795233)
  • An issue with creating informal pending cases was resolved. The issue occurred when the user performed a pending case search with a specified carrier and then tried to create a case from the search results list. When the user clicked the Finish button, multiple advisor request dialog boxes were opening, and eight informal child cases were appearing on the case's Informal Application content link. (PMG-796301)
  • An issue with requirements in case status reports was resolved. When a downloaded pending case requirement contained the HTML character entity "&" in the Remarks field, the remarks were not appearing in case status reports. (PMG-797827)
  • When enabled, the case status service was not sending case status reports to advisors automatically as expected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-801422)
  • Users who had the Side menu case status (mass send) license were not getting access to the Insurance > Case Status command in the side menu unless they also had the Pending Case & Policy Setup Administrator license. This issue was resolved so that the administrator license in no longer required. (PMG-802165)
  • On the disability pending case Delivery content link, the Pick Date buttons in the Miscellaneous Information section were either missing or not working in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-804083)

SmartBenefits


Resolved Issues


  • The user creating a group pending case requirement was always being assigned as the requirement manager, regardless of workflow settings. This issue was resolved. (PMG-135105)

SmartWholesaler


Enhancements


  • Page layout customization for producers and firms: SmartWholesaler users can now customize the page layouts of producer and firm records. The Menu > Page Layout command is available on the producer Personal and Add'l Detail content links and the firm Detail and Add'l Detail content links. (PMG-784529)

Resolved Issues


  • On the firm and producer records, users who do not have the Production Dashboard license were encountering user interface issues such as missing and incorrectly positioned buttons and check boxes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-802596)
  • On the Distributor List, users who selected multiple records and tried to navigate to the Group Policies tab were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-803157)

SmartCommissions


Enhancements


Speed Receipts

  • Due date calculation for imported transactions: Commission statement import from the Carrier Interface and .csv file import into Speed Receipts was enhanced to calculate missing transaction due date information. As part of this enhancement, SmartOffice now imports paid-to/next due date data from commission statements. When a transaction is missing a due date, SmartOffice now calculates the due date based on the paid-to/next due field during the validation process. (PMG-536026)

Resolved Issues


General

  • When users manually added rider commissions to the system, SmartOffice was not checking the rider expiration date and was adding commissions for expired riders in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-736461)
  • In some instances, when the paid mode on a House rate was As Paid with Months Advance, SmartOffice was calculating an incorrect number of base and excess commission payable records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-763038)
  • On the Agent Contract Editable List, adding certain columns to the list layout was causing unexpected messages and errors to appear when users tried to save any changes to the list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-767571)
  • On the Commission Rates List, selecting a rider rate and then selecting the Menu > Related Policies command was displaying no records, even when the rate was linked to one or more policies. In addition, when users selected multiple rates from the list before selecting the same command, the system was opening multiple dialog boxes instead of notifying the user that information for only one record could be displayed. These issues were resolved. (PMG-788860)
  • A commission calculation issue was occurring when the house rate's paid mode was As Paid with Months Advance and the advisor and supervisor rates were set to the Annualized First Year Only paid mode. When the commission hierarchy on the policy was changed and commissions were recalculated, the system was generating an incorrect number of advisor commission records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-788873)
  • In Commission-family Dynamic reports, several columns belonging to the Pending Case table were not displaying data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-792674)
  • The sizes of the Edit Commission Rates dialog box and the Commission Bands section of the commission rate Detail content were expanded to display more rows and columns. (PMG-792847)
  • When a user entered a rider commission manually, the system was setting the commission year based on the policy date and not the rider effective date. This was causing incorrect commission calculations. The issue was resolved. (PMG-793195)
  • When multiple commission bands existed for different product options on commission rates, the system was selecting the first-added rates on policies, ignoring rate expiration dates. This issue was resolved so that the system now selects active rates by default. (PMG-795484)
  • An issue was occurring when the expiration date on an advisor contract was changed to a past date. When the user saved the change and reopened the record, the expiration date was blank, and the status was not Expired. This issue was resolved. (PMG-796300)
  • An issue with premium banding commission rates on group policies was resolved. When users reconciled/processed first-year and several renewal-year commissions and then recalculated commissions, the banding for advisor commissions payable were starting over, i.e., the commissions payable from the first open commission record had the percentage from the first band. (PMG-803645)

Batch Processing

  • Users who opened the Advisor Checks Under the Minimum Check Amount dialog box from a batch record were finding that the commands for generating e-mail and PDF commission statements for advisors were not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-800904)

Carrier Posting

  • In carrier posting records, users who selected the Set Status Close command for a commission transaction record whose status was Open (Speed Receipt Entry) were encountering an issue. The confirmation message explaining that the any linked speed receipt entries will be invalidated contained a typo and was missing the Yes and No buttons. These issue were resolved. (PMG-791021)

Speed Receipts

  • For group policies, an issue that occurred when SmartOffice calculated commissions with negative amounts from Speed Receipts was resolved. When the house rate was configured with Number of Members banding and the advisor/supervisor rate had a paid mode of As Paid with a percentage of base commission, the system was creating commission payable records only for the house. (PMG-773920)

SmartInvestments


Enhancements


Investment Accounts

  • New interested party roles: SmartOffice now has two additional system choices for account interested party roles: Trusted Contact Person and Other. These roles can be assigned to any contact entered in the Interested Parties list on the account Detail content link. The Trusted Contact Person role is aimed at helping users follow FINRA rules for protecting seniors and vulnerable adults from financial exploitation. (PMG-800069)
  • Improved page layout control for investment accounts: After opening an account record from the contact Investment Accounts tab, users who select the Page Layout command can now add Dynamic Report portlets to the layout. (PMG-801925)

Investment Positions

  • Position transaction entry improvements expanded: The improvements to Buy and Sell position transaction entry on the Investment Position List, which were introduced recently in SmartOffice, have been expanded to apply to all transaction types in all areas of the system where users can enter position transactions. All Investment Transaction dialog boxes now have the Save and Save & Validate buttons. For more information, refer to the description of PMG-766750 in the release notes for SmartOffice 2018 Release 1. (PMG-785391)

Resolved Issues


General

  • The Investment Ticker feature on the home page was displaying errors because the service that provided pricing data for the feature was recently discontinued. The ticker has been removed from SmartOffice Pro while Ebix looks for a new pricing data source. (PMG-748952)

Investment Accounts

  • An issue with adding an interested party to an investment account was resolved. Users were finding that certain roles were not selectable in the Account Role drop-down list, even though the roles were appearing in the drop-down choice customization dialog box. These roles were removed from the choice customization dialog box because they were advisor roles. (PMG-703966)
  • When an advisor was linked to an investment account with a role of Reassigned or Other, the advisor's name was appearing in the All Interested Parties column instead of the All Advisors column on account and position lists. This issue was resolved. (PMG-789905)
  • When accessing investment account notes and opportunity notes in a child office, parent-office users who clicked the Archived Notes tab were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-791019)

Investment Positions

  • When using the Change Transaction Type command on existing position transactions, users were seeing Save and Save & Validate buttons instead of the OK button in the Investment Transaction dialog box. The OK button was restored for these dialog boxes. (PMG-788700)
  • An issue that was allowing users to delete position transactions but not add or modify them was resolved. (PMG-793364)
  • An issue with creating Fee- and Security-Out-type position transactions was resolved. When the user entered a transaction amount only and then saved the record, the system was changing the transaction type to Buy. This issue was resolved. (PMG-800337)

Investment Reports

  •  An issue with customizing the page layout of the contact Personal content link was resolved. When an investment Account-category Dynamic Report was added to the layout, users were encountering an error when navigating to the page. (PMG-788992)
  • When running Performance-category PDF reports, users who selected the Save Settings option were finding that sorting options were not being saved. This issue was resolved. (PMG-791681)
  • Users were encountering an error when generating the TWRR Performance Summary of Accounts PDF report at the contact, household or investment level. This issue was resolved. (PMG-792064)
  • An issue that was preventing dollar-weighted rate of return (DWRR) investment PDF reports from running properly was resolved. (PMG-794860)

Integrations and Data Services


Enhancements


Inforce Policy Import

  • Better logging of skipped contacts: The inforce policy data feed was enhanced to better log instances in which a contact or business is skipped when no matching record is found. (PMG-785173)
  • Enhanced policy advisor handling: The logic for refreshing Policy Advisor List entries after an inforce policy download was improved in several ways:

- When the policy advisor party role does not exist in the incoming feed, an entry is now added to the Policy Advisor List in SmartOffice.


- When the advisor data in the feed is that same as the data in SmartOffice, the policy advisor information in SmartOffice is not updated.


- When any Policy Advisor List party role exists in SmartOffice but not in the feed, the entry is no longer deleted from SmartOffice.



(PMG-789292)


  • New log messages for skipped contacts: New, more descriptive log messages have been implemented for instances in which contact records are skipped during inforce policy imports. The messages provide the contact's name and the reason the record was skipped. (PMG-791004)

Investment Data Downloads

  • Remapping of dbCAMS transaction type code: The dbCAMS transaction code MIC now maps to the Security-In transaction type in SmartOffice instead of the Buy/Buy-T transaction type. (PMG-801248)

Pending Case Downloads

  • Enhanced mapping of table rating: The system now maps permanent table rating data from the pending case feed to table rating choices in SmartOffice (such as Table 1(A), Table 2(B), etc.). (PMG-788990)
  • Mapping of Incomplete status: SmartOffice now maps custom PolicyStatus type code 1008400045 to the Incomplete policy status in SmartOffice. (PMG-791887)
  • Excess premium mapping: The ExcessPremAmtITD element in pending case download files is now mapped as excess premium on pending cases in SmartOffice. (PMG-800420)
  • Requirement date mappings: In SmartOffice pending case records, two new columns, Carrier Ordered and Carrier Received, are now available on the Underwriting Requirement List and Delivery Requirement List. These columns map to the RequestedDate and ReceivedDate elements in the downloaded ACORD file. (PMG-804555)

SmartIntegrator and SmartXchange

  • Phaseout of TLS 1.0 support: Ebix has begun the process of upgrading the SmartXchange proxy to require Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.1 or 1.2. SmartOffice encourages developer partners who send and receive requests through SmartXchange to modify their applications to use TLS 1.1 or 1.2 as soon as possible. Ebix is contacting developer partners who are affected by this change with additional details.   

Resolved Issues


Inforce Policy Import

  • An issue that was causing duplicate entries to appear in the Data Import Log for some policies after an inforce policy feed import was resolved. The issue was occurring when policies in the feed contained more than one primary insured record. (PMG-789294)

Investment Data Downloads

  • Errors were occurring in some instances when Albridge data downloads involving large numbers of records were being processed. This issue was resolved. (PMG-780660)
  • The system was returning an error when trying to process Pershing InfoDirect .zip import files containing zero-byte ACCF files. This issue was resolved. (PMG-786304)
  • An issue that was preventing the processing of Pershing data downloads was resolved. (PMG-800299)

Pending Case Downloads

  • In some instances during Direct Download and Replace, when a case appeared multiple times in one batch of downloaded files or in one download file, duplicate pending cases entries were being created in SmartOffice. (PMG-792685)
  • When attempting to match an HO pending case to a pending case that was already linked to another HO pending case, users were not seeing the prompt informing them that the case was already linked. This issue was resolved. (PMG-794700)
  • When pending case download files contained different TrackingID values but no policy numbers, downloading multiple files from the mailbox was creating only one HO pending case in SmartOffice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-795904)
  • During manual side-by-side processing, processed cases were displaying blank Rate, Rating %, and Proposed/Issued Class fields because the PermTableRating and UnderwritingClass elements in the downloaded ACORD file were not being mapped properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-797809)

SmartIntegrator and SmartXchange

  • An issue that was producing unexpected responses from SmartIntegrator method calls was resolved. (PMG-777877)
  • A server certificate issue that was causing single sign-on errors for certain applications was resolved. (PMG-793187)
  • An issue that was preventing users from using the PaperClip integration with pending cases linked to a resource-office carrier was resolved. The issue was occurring for users who turned on Enterprise View. (PMG-794903)

SmartOffice Anywhere Changes


Note: SmartOffice Anywhere changes are also summarized on the Release History page in SmartOffice Anywhere Help.


Featured Enhancements


Customizable Mobile Navigation Menu


On mobile devices, users can now choose the buttons that appear on the SmartOffice Anywhere navigation menu. To access these settings, tap More on the navigation menu and select Settings. Then tap the edit button at the top to display the available options.



The screen shows you how your existing navigation menu looks, along with all available buttons. Tap a button that you want to remove from your menu, and then tap the button you want to replace it with.


Note: The mobile navigation menu can also be customized from SmartOffice Pro; go to the Basic Info content link in User Preferences and look for the new Mobile Navigation Menu Options section. (PMG-795312)


Other Enhancements


  • Default sign-in location for mobile: The default sign-in location can now be configured differently for SmartOffice Anywhere sign-ins on mobile versus desktop devices. On a mobile device, tap the More button in the navigation menu, tap Settings, and then scroll down to the Default location at sign-in (mobile) field to select a choice.

Note: You can also configure this setting in SmartOffice Pro; on the Basic Info content link in User Preferences, look for the new Default location at sign-in (SOA mobile) drop-down list under Default Settings. (PMG-796288)


  • Opportunity field labels: The opportunity detail screen on mobile devices was updated with full field labels to make the data easier to read. (PMG-800077)

Resolved Issues


  • The contact detail screen was loading only partially when the contact was linked to an advisor record and the user did not have the Advisors & Agencies user right. This issue was resolved. (PMG-792488)
  • On the activity detail screen, the Activity Type drop-down list choices were not alphabetized properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-796389)
  • A date format issue was causing first-time setup issues in new offices that do not use tier licensing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-805420)