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Last updated: 2025-12-03


Release Notes - SmartOffice 2017 Release 1


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.


April 5, 2017


  • Initial publication.

April 12, 2017


  • SmartPolicies: Added solution for missing impairment option (PMG-726891).
  • SmartCommissions: Added solution for incorrect Advisor Payment List column calculations (PMG-725504).
  • SmartCommissions: Added solution for incorrect calculation of commission on excess premium (PMG-727149).
  • Integrations and Data Services: Added solution for Albridge closed position issue (PMG-711723).
  • Integrations and Data Services: Added solution for blank Primary Advisor field after using AnnuityNet and Lifespeed integrations (PMG-713820).
  • Integrations and Data Services: Added solution for Constant Contact access issue (PMG-710469).

April 13, 2017


  • Core System: Added "Improved reliability for automatic report e-mailing" enhancement (PMG-692174).
  • Core System: Added solution for activity creation issue related to record sharing (PMG-711236).
  • Core System: Added solution to parent-child key relation issue (PMG-715394).
  • Core System: Added solution for enterprise correspondence issue related to opt-out links (PMG-717618).
  • Core System: Added solution for pending case correspondence error (PMG-719080).
  • Integrations and Data Services: Added solution for position history error capture in import log (PMG-721313).
  • Integrations and Data Services: Added solution to issue with downloaded rep information from SEI (PMG-701767).

Release Overview


SmartOffice 2017 Release 1 resolves performance, user interface and other issues identified in SmartOffice 2016 Release 6 and includes several enhancements, particularly in the policy and pending case management portions of the system.


Enhancement Highlights


This section provides quick links to the featured enhancements in this release.


Core System



Agency Management



Wealth Management



System Requirements


The system requirements remained unchanged in this release. For detailed 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


Automatic Sign-in to Plug-In

When a user starts a SmartOffice Pro workflow that requires the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice (e.g., correspondence), SmartOffice Pro now signs the user in to the plug-in automatically to complete the workflow. Previously, the user had to sign in to the plug-in manually.


Manual sign-in is still available but is now easier. Users who are already signed in to SmartOffice Pro can now sign in to the plug-in instantly by clicking the new Login Desktop Integration button or selecting the Login Desktop Integration command from the profile menu.



(PMG-663153)


Other Enhancements


General

  • List refresh option removed: The Disable Refresh option was removed from the List Layout Customization dialog box because it is no longer necessary. Unlike earlier versions of SmartOffice, SmartOffice Pro automatically refreshes lists to reflect any changes to records. (PMG-683388)

Contact Management

  • Contact deletion restriction for linked user accounts: SmartOffice no longer allows the deletion of a contact or advisor record linked to a user account. This enhancement resolves an issue in offices that have Protect Communication History enabled. Previously, in those offices, deleting the contact/advisor was archiving the contact and rendering the linked user account inaccessible. (PMG-675781)
  • Contact export improvements: Improvements were made to the process of exporting contacts to other offices. When multiple contacts with key relationships are exported from the source office during the same SmartOffice session, those contacts and relationships are now reconstructed in the target office. (PMG-710789)

Correspondence

  • Renamed attachment options: Two changes related to attachment preferences for e-mail correspondence were made:

- In User Preferences - Correspondence Options, under E-mail Attachment Options, the RTF option was renamed MS Word.


- In Step 4 of the Correspondence Wizard, the RTF option in the Send form letter as e-mail attachment drop-down list was renamed MS Word.



(PMG-666219)


  • Ability to control overrides in Correspondence Wizard: Enterprise customers can now specify whether their users can override recipient problems detected by the Correspondence Wizard. The element under the element in the server config.xml file determines whether the Override button appears in the Validate & Send step of the wizard. Setting the element to false removes the button from the wizard:

   false


(PMG-719319)



Dynamic Reports

  • Improved reliability for automatic report e-mailing: Enhancements were made to SmartOffice so that extended maintenance periods no longer interfere with the automatic e-mailing of Dynamic Reports. Previously, if a maintenance period extended past a certain length, some reports were not being sent.

As part of this enhancement, enterprise customers can now configure SmartOffice so that, if the SmartOffice server is restarted within a certain time window, the SERVICELOG table is checked to ensure that the report e-mailing service completed successfully during the previous 24 hours. If this check reveals that the report e-mailing service did not complete, the service is restarted. The time window can be set using the and elements under in the server config.xml file, as shown in the following example:

   false

   com.ezdata.cdsportal.data.dynreport.EmailDynRpt

   1:45   2:00

   4:00   US/Pacific

   6

(PMG-692174)


  • Report printing improvement: When users print the results of a Dynamic Report, the printout no longer includes the text "Dynamic Report" in the title by default. (PMG-709900)

Resolved Issues


General

  • Users were encountering discrepancies between storage allocation amounts displayed on the office Detail content link and those displayed when they clicked the Storage Used (MB) hyperlink. This issue was resolved. (PMG-589707)
  • Google Chrome users were unable to use the browser's spelling checker in SmartOffice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-643837)
  • An issue affecting users who signed in to SmartOffice for the first time was resolved. The issue occurred after these users specified a security question and changed the temporary password. When these users tried to add a tab to the home page, SmartOffice was prompting them to specify a security question and change the password again. (PMG-651110)
  • Printed lists were displaying data in color-coded fields (e.g., Review Date) in black instead of their appropriate font colors. This issue was resolved. (PMG-662891)
  • An issue with exporting lists as .csv files was resolved. When the list included a column containing negative numbers, those numbers were enclosed in apostrophes. (PMG-676599)
  • An issue with date formats in lists was resolved. In certain instances, editing a record or changing the sorting of the list was changing the format of dates displayed in the list. (PMG-688705, PMG-712509)
  • A series of security updates were made to help guard SmartOffice against cross-site scripting and privilege escalation attacks. (PMG-691558, PMG-691559, PMG-691567)
  • When creating custom choices for drop-down lists, users were finding that the new choices were not being saved consistently. This issue was resolved. (PMG-691663)
  • When a user applied a column filter to the last column of a list and there were no matching records, the Apply Column Filter button was disappearing from the column. This issue was resolved. (PMG-693757)
  • An issue that was causing users to be signed out of SmartOffice unexpectedly when using the pop-up calendar was resolved. (PMG-695420)
  • In Office Settings, the feature for exporting customized list layouts to XML format was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-704670)
  • An issue affecting SmartOffice users with administrator rights was resolved. When these users edited user rights for a user account and then saved those changes, SmartOffice was clearing all of the user rights for the account. The issue occurred in Internet Explorer only. (PMG-705537)
  • For users with expired passwords who signed in to SmartOffice, two issues with the password reset dialog box were resolved:

- After closing and then reopening the browser, users who returned to the same page were not seeing the reset dialog box and were able to access SmartOffice.


- Refreshing the browser was causing the reset dialog box to disappear.



(PMG-708847)


  • An issue that was causing the user account User Rights content link to open slowly was resolved. This issue was affecting the accounts of users who proxied for a large number of users. (PMG-708883)
  • During the mass merge process for duplicate records, the system was improperly allowing users to select the Primary Record, Merge into Primary and Delete options for a single record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-711935)
  • Google Chrome users who expanded the side menu were finding that the menu was collapsed the next time they signed in to SmartOffice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-715815)
  • An issue with applying custom sorting and grouping settings to a list layout was resolved. Users were losing those settings after adjusting a column's width, navigating to another tab and then navigating back to the list. (PMG-717742)

Alert Center

  • Issues with deleting system-wide alerts were resolved, and issues affecting the alert list’s List Layout Customization dialog box were addressed. (PMG-663886)
  • In some offices, an issue that was preventing certain users from receiving alerts and notifications was resolved. (PMG-715341)

Contact Management

  • After creating a page layout template for the business Detail content link, users who later edited the layout were finding that certain field groups were appearing twice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-683362)
  • The contact/business Search dialog box was not allowing users to type anything in the Sub-Type field. This issue was resolved. (PMG-692192)
  • An issue with entering primary advisor information on a contact record was resolved. When users tried to navigate away from the record without saving it, the system was asking whether the user wanted to save the changes. However, clicking Yes was not saving the changes. (PMG-695892)
  • Contacts created from the business Employee Census content link were being added as key relations of the business without prompting the user, regardless of office settings. This issue was resolved. (PMG-695919)
  • An issue with adding a dependent as a contact's key relation was resolved. If the user selected a contact to add as the dependent, the system was not informing the user that the contact record would be converted to a dependent record. In addition, the key relation was being added as a contact rather than a dependent. (PMG-700939)
  • An issue with creating a custom page layout for the business Detail content link was resolved. Users who added the Business Information portlet to the layout were finding that the SIC field was missing. (PMG-705245)
  • An issue affecting enterprise environments that allow users to view documents in SmartOffice without the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice was resolved. When viewing the Letter Log and Document List as a single list, users who tried to open e-mail attachments were being prompted to download an .sopro file instead of the attachment itself. (PMG-706879)
  • An activity creation issue related to record sharing was resolved. When creating an activity linked to the shared contact record, the specialist was unable to add the record owner to the new activity as a participant. (PMG-711236)
  • When a Google Chrome user's date format preference was set to anything other than MM/dd/yyyy, changing a contact's date of birth was not updating the contact's age. This issue was resolved. (PMG-711429)
  • An issue with the Save & New workflow for creating multiple contacts was resolved. When SmartOffice displayed an alert about a possible duplicate, users who clicked the Yes button to proceed anyway were not being prompted to enter the next contact's details. (PMG-712167)
  • An issue with creating parent-child key relations was resolved. When spouse relationships were already defined and a child's relationship was defined for only one of the parents, attempts to define the child's relationship with the other parent were resulting in the error "This relationship already exists between these contacts." In addition, users were unable to back out of the error because the blank options were missing from the relationship drop-down lists; these blank options were restored. (PMG-715394)
  • In certain office configurations, Internet Explorer users were unable to print contact records and SmartPad notes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-718217)
  • Users who tried to open an integration after making unsaved changes to a contact were not being prompted to save their changes first. This issue was resolved. (PMG-719041)
  • While typing in the Search box, users were not seeing a list of matching results when searching for business names beginning with a parenthesis. This issue was resolved. (PMG-719567)

Correspondence

  • An issue that was preventing the RefereeName merge code from working was resolved. (PMG-648768)
  • In the Correspondence Wizard, users who tried to print labels were finding that the sorting options they selected were being ignored in the final output. This issue was resolved. (PMG-649100, PMG-662187, PMG-665722, PMG-671040)
  • An issue with the Send E-mail command in the contact Document List was resolved. When the user selected more than one attachment before selecting the command, a new Outlook message was opening as expected, but the selected files were not attached. (PMG-688400)
  • On the contact Letters/Documents content link, users who tried to use the Send E-mail command with multiple documents selected were encountering a message stating that only the highlighted record would be processed. This issue, which occurred when letters and documents were displayed in a combined list, was resolved. (PMG-702120)
  • During the correspondence workflow, an issue that was preventing Google Chrome from downloading the necessary configuration file to the user’s computer was resolved (PMG-709644)
  • When sending intra-office e-mail for a child-office record, Enterprise View users were seeing a list of user recipients from the child office instead of being given the option to select the office. (PMG-712121)
  • For enterprise customers, an issue with including opt-out links in e-mail correspondence was resolved. (PMG-717618)
  • Users who tried to send correspondence to advisors on certain pending cases were encountering errors. This issue was resolved. (PMG-719080)

Data Import

  • Saved data import setups were not retaining their field mappings. This issue was resolved. (PMG-704718)
  • An issue affecting users who tried to modify a System-office data import setup was resolved. The system was asking these users whether they wanted to create a local-office copy of the setup to modify, but when they clicked the Yes button, the copy was not being created. (PMG-712591)

Dynamic Reports

  • Two issues affecting the Excel Template List were resolved:

- Users who ran a template search from the list were seeing incorrect results.


- Selecting one of these search results and using the Send E-mail command was producing a “failed to load object” error.



(PMG-660319)


  • An issue with activity Dynamic Reports was resolved. The issue occurred when the user marked an activity in the report as Done and then completed the comprehensive activity outcome workflow. In some instances, after the report refreshed, it was displaying activities that did not meet the report criteria. (PMG-694818)
  • Internet Explorer users who tried to set up report automation for a Dynamic Report were encountering a "failed to load object" error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-700924)
  • When a user with no Modify and Delete permissions for Dynamic Reports tried to create a report:

- The report category selection page was not appearing.


- The Finish button was missing in Dynamic Report Setup.



These issues were resolved. (PMG-702768)


  • A Dynamic Report issue affecting Enterprise View users was resolved. Impersonate Mode users who tried to create an automatic e-mailing rule for a child-office report were encountering a "msgAppNoLayoutDefined" error.  (PMG-716994)
  • Running a Dynamic Report with the Tree layout that was grouped by day was producing an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-718061)
  • Some recipients of automatically e-mailed Dynamic Reports were receiving messages containing no attached report. This issue was resolved. (PMG-723151)

Filters

  • An issue with line spacing in the column filter user interface was resolved. (PMG-257672)
  • Some drop-down lists in the filter setup workflow were not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-619721)
  • After selecting the Filters option from the Add New menu, users who clicked the Close button to cancel the process were still being prompted to enter the filter details. This issue was resolved. (PMG-695364)
  • One of the system's popular date range filters, Previous 2 Years, was including results from the current year. The filter was corrected. (PMG-701138)

Home Page

  • An error that was occurring when users added multiple Dynamic Reports to a home page tab was resolved. (PMG-596516)
  • On home page tabs, an issue that was preventing users from modifying Dynamic Report run-time filters was resolved. (PMG-694095)
  • When editing a home page portlet, users had access to the Type drop-down list. Because an existing portlet's type cannot be modified, this drop-down list was removed. (PMG-708766)
  • An issue with shared home page tabs was resolved. A user who repositioned a portlet in a tab shared by another user was gaining ownership of the tab. This was causing the tab to lose its shared status and to be invisible to its original owner. (PMG-711041)
  • Users were encountering an error when trying to export dashboards. This issue was resolved. (PMG-712872)

PDF Reports

  • An issue with running bunch PDF reports was resolved. Users who ran a letter template from the Template Administration section of the bunch report dialog box were encountering a blank box. (PMG-722996)

SmartPad

  • An issue with the Notes column filter in the SmartPad was resolved. When a user entered text in the filter's Equal to field, the SmartPad was displaying notes containing only that text. The filter was corrected so that it now displays all notes containing the text. (PMG-691170)
  • While creating a SmartPad entry, users who resized the dialog box were finding that the dialog box elements were not scaling properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-705372)
  • Two SmartPad issues were resolved:

- Internet Explorer users were able to save SmartPad entries without entering anything in the Notes field. In addition, the Notes field was not appearing in yellow to indicate that it is required.


- Some users were encountering a "data entry error" message when saving SmartPad entries.



(PMG-713473)



SmartCalendar


Resolved Issues


  • Users who selected Contact Made > Schedule New Call Activity as an activity outcome were finding that the system was setting the new activity's time to the current system time. This issue was resolved so that the user can now select a date without a time. (PMG-643749)
  • On the Calendar Agenda view, due dates were not being displayed in red when the dates had passed. This issue was resolved. (PMG-648008)
  • On the Calendar Agenda view, users were unable to delete a large number of activities at the same time. This issue was resolved. (PMG-651626)
  • On the Calendar Day view, pointing to an activity was displaying the information card as expected, but when the user tried to access the card's submenu, the card was disappearing. In addition, right-clicking an activity in this view was displaying the submenu instead of the main information card. These issues were resolved. (PMG-653654)
  • Changing the Type field of an activity was causing the Sub-Type field to go blank. However, after the activity was saved, the Sub-Type data was reappearing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-653726)
  • An issue with activity notes was resolved. When the user selected the option to send the note as an alert and e-mail to other users, some of those users were not seeing the contact's name in the subject line. (PMG-666796)
  • An issue with viewing other users' calendars was resolved. Selecting the Show My Favorite User List option in the user selection dialog box was displaying users who were not favorites. In addition, selecting one of the users was not displaying the user's activities on the calendar. (PMG-685671)
  • The default start time for new appointments, which is configured in User Preferences - Activity Options, was not being applied in the calendar Day and Week views. This issue was resolved. (PMG-686548)
  • An issue with the Add Important Dates to the Calendar feature was resolved. Users who selected the Extract Dates from Specific Table option and specified a field were finding that the activities were not being extracted. (PMG-692191)
  • When users created calendar activities on the household Activity Log tab, extra dialog boxes were opening unnecessarily. This issue was resolved. (PMG-699256)
  • On the calendar Day and Week views, selecting the Maximize/Minimize Windows command on the Tasks or All Day Events list was causing a list display issue. This issue was resolved. (PMG-702125, PMG-726248)
  • After adding holidays using the Add Important Dates to the Calendar feature, users were finding that the holidays were appearing as blank boxes on the calendar. This issue was resolved. (PMG-702952)
  • An issue with the Add Important Dates to the Calendar utility was resolved. When the user set up the utility to extract dates from the Policy Date field of the Policy table, activities were not being created. (PMG-711828)
  • An issue with the pop-up calendar was resolved. When the Agenda view was customized to include the Linked Record column, users who opened a linked policy from that column were then unable to open the policy notes. (PMG-712595)
  • In the Activity Detail dialog box, clicking the Start Time drop-down list was always displaying 12:00 AM at the top, regardless of the time that was already specified. This issue was resolved so that the drop-down list scrolls to the currently specified time. (PMG-712654)
  • In the calendar, users who selected the Mass Modify command from the Agenda view were seeing extraneous tabs in the Mass Modification dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-712769)
  • The Add Important Dates to the Calendar feature was not working for users who did not have high-level administrator rights. This issue was resolved. (PMG-713543)

SmartOpportunities


Enhancements


  • Better opportunity owner selection: Users now have more flexibility when specifying the owner of a new opportunity. In the New - Opportunity dialog box, users can now click the Opportunity Owner field label to open a list of all available users. Previously, the field was a drop-down list that displayed a maximum of 50 users. (PMG-698131)

Resolved Issues


  • On the opportunity Detail content link, users were unable to enter dates in the Date2, Date3 and Date4 custom fields. The Pick Date buttons were also missing from these fields. These issues were resolved. (PMG-701674)
  • An issue with new opportunity notes was resolved. When the user saved the note with the Send this note as an alert and e-mail to other user(s) option selected, the e-mail message's subject line contained information other than the contact's name. (PMG-611072)

SmartLeads


Resolved Issues


  • Several issues affecting the SmartLeads module were resolved:

- On the Unassigned Leads List, the Campaign Mass Assignment command was not working.


- When assigning a lead to an advisor who had already rejected that lead, users were not seeing the confirmation message informing them of the prior rejection.


- On the Import Setup List, users who pointed to the buttons for creating and deleting lead import setups were seeing "null" ToolTips.


- When creating a lead import setup, users were unable to select the correct lead type.


- When a user accepting a lead triggered an e-mail correspondence workflow, spaces in the e-mail subject line were being replaced by plus (+) signs.


- Text and columns in various parts of the lead import wizard were misaligned or otherwise displaying incorrectly.



(PMG-696016)


  • While viewing the lead Detail content link, users were unable to assign leads to an advisor. This issue was resolved. (PMG-699328)

SmartRecruiting


Enhancements


  • Recruiter report enhancement: In Actions-category Dynamic Reports belonging to the Recruiting report family, users can now access columns in the Recruiter - User Info table. This enhancement enables users to filter for recruiters based on their user account information and display that information in the report. (PMG-703457)

Resolved Issues


  • Users who selected the Hire command on the candidate Detail content link were finding that the Complete and Close buttons were missing from the dialog box. (PMG-709526)

SmartEvents


Resolved Issues


  • Several issues affecting event tasks were resolved:

- When a user created a task in Event Setup, the Complete Task field was displaying the phrase "day(s) before Event date" regardless of whether the Task Type selected was Prepare, Conduct or Follow-up.


- For scheduled events, tasks were not appearing in the calendar, and task completion days were not visible.



(PMG-693738)


  • Events with a status of Draft were not being properly updated to the Active status. This issue was resolved. (PMG-712579)

Advisors/Agencies


Featured Enhancements


Ability to Hide Advisor Roles

Administrators can now remove advisor role choices to streamline the process of adding advisors to policies. In Policy/Case Setup, select PCM Workflows > Advisor Role Exclusion Setup to open a list of current advisor role choices. Then click the Options button and select New 'Advisor Role' Record to open the Advisor Roles dialog box.


Check the box next to each item you want to hide, and then click the OK button. (PMG-592210)


Other Enhancements


General

  • Default advisor/agency status setting for searches: Administrators can now specify the default status for results of advisor/agency record searches. In Policy/Case Setup, go to Advisor Communication > Advisor Privacy and select an option from the Default Status for Advisor and Agency Search drop-down list. Previously, the list always displayed Active-status records by default. (PMG-565964, PMG-703811)
  • Ability to specify agency type during advisor creation: While creating an advisor record, users who select the New - Agency option can now specify the agency type. A new Type field is now available in the Business Address section of the New - Advisor dialog box. Previously, agencies created in this manner were always BGA-type agencies by default, and users had to edit the agency record itself to specify a different type. (PMG-670165)

SmartView for Advisors

  • Table rating information in SmartView: SmartView for Advisors - Case Status users can now see proposed and issued table rating information for insureds on a policy. (PMG-705005)

Resolved Issues


General

  • When the page layout of the advisor Personal content link was customized, alphanumeric fields in the advisor Custom tab were not displaying properly in Dynamic Reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-651484)
  • On the presale activity Detail content link, the Convert to Pending Case command was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-710527)
  • An issue that was preventing users from adding a contract while completing an advisor request was resolved. After marking a contracting advisor request as Completed, users who tried to add a contract were encountering a "Your action cannot be completed" error. This issue affected advisor requests with a blank Contract Name field. (PMG-718105)
  • On the agency License/Compliance content link, the Menu and Options buttons were cut off. This issue was resolved. (PMG-719167)
  • On the advisor request Detail content link, when users clicked the hyperlink to view the linked appointment, license, contract or compliance record, the dialog box that opened was missing the command for creating a linked record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-724661)

SmartPolicies


Featured Enhancements


More Policy/Pending Case Page Layout Options


Users now have additional flexibility in how they customize the page layouts of the policy Basic Information and pending case Detail content links. The following new features are now available in the page layout dialog box:


  • Custom fields and fields from the Life table (Basic Face, Final Conversion Date, etc.) can now be added to these layouts. These fields are listed under Available Columns.
  • Policy Notes and Pending Case Notes portlets are now available under Available Portlets.
  • Dynamic Report portlets can now be added to policy page layouts using the Add Dynamic Report Portlet link.

(PMG-688643)


Highlighting of Inactive Policies in Lists

To help users spot inactive policies, group policies and pending cases more easily, SmartOffice now highlights these policies in red when they appear in lists.


(PMG-693552)


Other Enhancements


  • Policy report improvement: In the Policy Summary PDF report, basic face amounts now display out to two decimal places. (PMG-483834)
  • Policy column label changes: To make sorting easier in Dynamic Reports, three policy-related columns—Second Insured or Annuitant, Beneficiary and Owner—now display names in Last Name, First Name format. In addition, The Insured Last Name, First Name column was renamed Insured Name. (PMG-700832)

Resolved Issues


  • When attempting to print labels for a list of polices, users were finding that the printed labels were all for the same policy. This issue was resolved. (PMG-643360)
  • In an opportunity record, users who clicked a linked pending case or policy were finding that the layout of the dialog box that opens was incorrect. This issue was resolved. (PMG-659785)
  • An issue that occurred when users created a new policy while viewing an existing policy was resolved. When users cleared the prefilled contact from the Interested Parties section and replaced it with a contact of a different gender, the Gender field was not being updated accordingly. (PMG-672430)
  • On the policy Basic Information and group policy Detail content links, users were encountering truncated fields and other layout anomalies when commission-related features were turned off. This issue was resolved. (PMG-702500)
  • An issue with adding columns from the Policy table to policy and pending case lists was resolved. When the same columns from the Policy Alternate table were also added to these lists, none of the Policy and Policy Alternate columns were displaying values. (PMG-707476)
  • When a user tried to create a policy with Enterprise View turned on, SmartOffice was not prompting the user to select an office. In addition, duplicate Policy Add dialog boxes were appearing. These issues were resolved. (PMG-723883)
  • In policy records, the Has Impairment option was missing from the Primary Insured entry in the Policy Insured List. The option was restored. (PMG-726891)

Insurance Products and Carriers


Resolved Issues


  • An issue that was preventing System office users from deleting resource-office subscriptions in Office Settings was resolved. (PMG-718063)

SmartCaseManager


Featured Enhancements


Requirement Completion Workflows

The system can now automatically mark case requirements as Completed based on updates received from pending case feeds. Administrators can configure this behavior in Policy/Case Setup by going to PCM Workflows > Requirement Completion Workflows. Add records for different requirement types and specify combinations of Status and Required Of that will trigger the completion of a requirement.



These workflows apply both to manual Side-by-Side Processing and Direct Download and Replace setups. (PMG-616946)


Other Enhancements


  • Inflation information for LTC policies: Users can now specify an inflation rate in long-term care policies, pending cases and presale activities. In policies, an Inflation field was added under Key Information on the Basic Information content link. In pending cases, the field is under Basic Policy Information on the Detail content link. In presale activity records, the field was added under Results on the Detail content link. (PMG-576332)
  • Ability to mask policy numbers in e-mail correspondence: To help protect client privacy, SmartOffice can now mask policy number information in the subject line of e-mailed pending case correspondence. To enable masking, open Policy/Case Setup and go to PCM Communication. In the Pending Case/Policy/Group Policy - Mask Policy# in E-mail Subject section, select the Mask Policy # option.

When this setting is enabled, policy numbers are partially obscured using asterisks. (PMG-656757)


  • Future premium payment reports: Users can now create Dynamic Reports showing future policy premium payment data. To access this feature, look for the new Future Premium Payments category in the Policy family of Dynamic Reports. By default, these reports display payment data sorted and grouped by carrier name. (PMG-664895)
  • Additional columns for interested party reports: An enhancement was made to certain reports in the Policy and Pending Case Dynamic Report families. Users who create Interested Parties-category Dynamic Reports now have access to columns from the Assigned To table, which has been added under the Advisor Contract table. (PMG-709487)

Resolved Issues


  • In Policy/Case Setup, an unnecessary Add button was removed from the DataXchange Setup > Registration Information section. (PMG-662697)
  • The Print All option for sending pending case status reports to advisors was not working for Google Chrome users. This issue was resolved. (PMG-698001)
  • An issue with product-related merge codes in policy and pending case correspondence templates was resolved. When a merge code expanded to display an insurance product's name, products containing a less-than (<) character were preventing correspondence from being generated successfully. (PMG-699477)
  • The Second Insured/Annuitant column label was not displaying properly in printed Dynamic Reports. The column was renamed Second Insured or Annuitant to resolve this issue. This change applies to all tables containing the column (Policy, Policy Alternate and Product). (PMG-700812)
  • When expanded in correspondence, the InsuranceCompany merge code was adding a blank line after the carrier’s name. This issue was resolved. (PMG-706134)
  • An "insert/update failed" error that was occurring when users created pending cases was resolved. (PMG-715620)
  • An issue with the Decision Date, Carrier Expiration and Office Expiration fields on the pending case Delivery content link was resolved. The system was improperly completing these fields when users entered modal premium information on new cases. (PMG-719219)
  • Several user interface issues in pending case records were resolved:

- On the Delivery content link, columns in the Policy Insured List were overlapping fields in the Miscellaneous Information section.


- On the Detail content link, the Status/Status Date, Basic Policy Information and Important Contacts sections were not appearing properly. In addition, when a custom page layout containing three columns was applied, overlapping fields and other issues were occurring.


- In the requirement detail dialog box, records in the Requirements History List were partially obscured.



(PMG-719733)



SmartBenefits


Resolved Issues


  • When a group policy’s \# of Members field contained a value, users who edited an existing entry in the Policy Advisor List were finding that SmartOffice was creating multiple advisor entries with the old advisor role. This issue was resolved. (PMG-710521)

SmartCommissions


Enhancements


General

  • New restriction for deleting policy advisors: An advisor with an Old or Reassigned role can no longer be deleted from a policy if the advisor has linked commission payable records on that policy. This enhancement prevents those commission payable records from being deleted along with the advisor. (PMG-699537)

Carrier Posting

  • Improved reconciliation process that fills in premium paid: When a commission transaction is reconciled in Carrier Posting, SmartOffice now automatically fills in the transaction's Actual Premium Paid amount if it is blank. This occurs in the following scenarios:

- The actual amount paid (i.e., paid commission) is missing and the user manually reconciles the transaction.


- The actual amount paid (i.e., paid commission) is present and matches the net expected amount (the system automatically reconciles the transaction in this scenario).



In both cases, SmartOffice now copies the value from the Calculated Premium field to the Actual Premium Paid field. (PMG-695495)



Speed Receipts

  • Improved speed receipt validation for multiple policies: When multiple policies are found during validation in Speed Receipts, the system now tries to match policy effective dates from the imported commission transactions to the policy dates associated with the expected commission records. This enhancement helps to prevent excessive "Multiple Policies Found" errors for firms that typically track more than one policy using the same policy number. (PMG-714666)

Resolved Issues


General

  • An issue affecting multiple-advisor policies with split percentages was resolved. When a user with the SmartCommissions - Advisor license calculated expected commissions for such policies, the commission records were correctly displaying payments for all advisors. However, if the user then switched to the CTM Administrator license, the same expected commission records were displaying all payments for the primary advisor only. (PMG-577144)
  • On the Contract List, issues that were preventing users from merging contracts and copying contract definitions were resolved. (PMG-675222)
  • Commissions were not being calculated when both of the following were true:

- The policy's premium mode was Quarterly.


- The commission rate's paid mode was set to As Paid with Months Advance (6 months) for the house and As Paid for the advisor.



This issue was resolved. (PMG-693314)


  • After running an Advisor Commission-category Dynamic Report, users who tried to generate an advisor commission report from the results were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-702876)
  • Commissions were not being calculated properly when both of the following were true:

- The house rate's paid mode was Annualized First Year Only, As Paid with Months Advance or Annual First Year Only.


- The advisor rate's paid mode was As Paid.



Under these conditions, payable commissions for the first base commission and excess commission are now calculated as if the house rate's paid mode is also As Paid. (PMG-712629)


  • Several issues with mass contracting and editing advisor contracts were resolved:

- Edits made to the Expiration Date field in Active-status advisor contracts using the Edit Agent Contracts command were not appearing in the edited records themselves.


- An intermittent "insert/update failed" error that was occurring when advisor contracts were edited using the Edit Agent Contracts command was resolved.


- In Commissions Setup, users who used the Mass Contracting feature with the Terminate option were finding that, after the process was complete, the status of the old advisor contract was not changing to Expired. In addition, the expiration date was not displaying when the contract record was opened.


- In Commissions Setup, users who used the Mass Contracting feature with the Replace option were encountering an issue. When these users clicked the Yes button to change all open commission payments to a new supervisor, the old supervisor and supervisor contract were not being replaced.


- Users who tried to mass edit advisor continuing education records were encountering an "insert/update failed" error in some instances.



(PMG-716704)


  • On the Advisor Payment List, the Commission and Net % of Premium columns were not calculating correctly because of improper rounding. In addition, the Commission column was not displaying any value for advisors and supervisors when they were paid by the carrier. These issues were resolved. (PMG-725504)
  • Issues with the calculation of commission on excess premium were resolved. The issue occurred when the advisor rate's paid mode was As Paid with excess as a percentage of gross commission and the house rate's paid mode was As Paid with Months Advance, Annualized First Year Only or Annual First Year Only. (PMG-727149)

Batch Processing

  • On the advisor payment list of a processed batch, users who did not have the Administrative Database Maintenance user right were encountering an error when they tried to edit the receivable value for an advisor payment. This issue was resolved. (PMG-717145)

Carrier Posting

  • An issue affecting carrier posting records created from Speed Receipts was resolved. Users who reconciled a commission transaction by writing it off were finding that the system was not updating the policy's Sys Paid-To date field. (PMG-686413)
  • On the Carrier Interface List, users who selected multiple records and then selected the Reprocess command were encountering an issue. Because only one record can be reprocessed at a time, the system was asking the user whether the highlighted record should be reprocessed. However, before the user could click Yes or No, reprocessing was starting. This issue was resolved. (PMG-701408)
  • In Carrier Posting, an issue with writing off the difference between the paid commission and net expected commission on a transaction was resolved. When the write-off amount was larger than the maximum allowed in Commissions Setup, the system was not displaying the prompt informing the user of that fact. (PMG-724383)

SmartWholesaler


Resolved Issues


  • Updating the status of a distributor to Active was opening a blank browser tab. This issue was resolved. (PMG-697382)
  • While creating a producer record, users who clicked the lookup button next to the Firm field were finding that the dialog box was closing and the record was being added to the database. This issue was resolved. (PMG-715354)
  • In Wholesaler Setup, an issue that was preventing users from creating Territory Border List entries in territory records was resolved. (PMG-718097)

SmartInvestments


Featured Enhancements


Automatic Asset Allocation Validation

When changes are made to a contact's asset allocation model or positions, the system now validates the allocation automatically. This ensures that users are seeing the most current data regarding actual versus target asset allocation. Previously, validation had to be run manually in those situations. This enhancement also applies to changes made at the household, investment account and account group levels. (PMG-565933)


Other Enhancements


Investment Accounts

  • Account group correspondence improvements: Users can now send correspondence from the Account Groups List as well as the Group Accounts content link. Correspondence sent from the Account Groups List is addressed to the primary contact of the primary account in the group, while correspondence sent from the Group Accounts content link is addressed to the primary contact of the selected account. As part of this enhancement, the Correspondence command on the Group Positions content link, which was not working, was removed. (PMG-633864)

Investment Positions

  • Improved tracking of variable annuities: Several enhancements were made to variable annuity position records:

- A Purchase Information section was added to the VA Detail content link to display purchase date, liquidated date, status, initial cost, tax cost and purchase cost information.



- SmartOffice now automatically sets a variable annuity's purchase date to the earliest purchase date among all of its subaccounts.


- SmartOffice now automatically sets a variable annuity's liquidated date to the latest liquidated date among all of its subaccounts, but only if none of those subaccounts has a null liquidated date.



(PMG-568486)



Resolved Issues


Investment Accounts

  • An issue with reassigning investment account primary contacts was resolved. When an account belonged to an account group, the reassignment process was not updating all of the appropriate database tables with the new contact ID. (PMG-696000)
  • An issue was occurring when a user changed an investment account's status to Inactive/Closed and entered a closing date that was earlier than the account opening date. The message warning the user about the date conflict was not worded properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-697374)
  • When an unlinked investment account was linked to a contact, the contact's primary advisor was not being assigned as the primary advisor on the account. This issue was resolved. (PMG-715623)
  • Performance issues related to the Link Account to Contact feature and the way in which it posts entries to the SmartPad were resolved. (PMG-715704)
  • An issue with mass correspondence generated from the Global Investment Account List was resolved. The F\_ACCT\_NAME and F\_ACCT\_NUMBER merge codes were expanding to display the wrong account name and account number. (PMG-717641)
  • On the contact Investment Accounts tab, users who selected an option other than All from the Type drop-down list were unable to switch back to All. This issue was resolved. (PMG-724246)

Investment Reports

  • In the Account Detail PDF report, the Registration field was not displaying data properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-674601)
  • The Performance Valuation Summary PDF report was not displaying valuation date information when a date option was specified. This issue was resolved. (PMG-681578)
  • Target values in the Asset Allocation Exception Report were being calculated incorrectly in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-699935)
  • A "JSP internal error" that was occurring when users ran the Asset Allocation - Target vs. Actual PDF report was resolved. (PMG-713789)

Investment Securities

  • On the Investment Security List, the following commands under Menu > Advanced Options were missing their icons:

- Update Exclude From Performance


- Update Fixed Price



This issue was resolved. (PMG-702061)



Liabilities

  • On the contact Liabilities tab, users were unable to edit existing records or create a record while viewing an existing record. These issues were resolved. (PMG-701436)
  • An issue with displaying liabilities on certain contact, investment account and investment position lists was resolved. When more than one liability was linked to a contact, account or position and the list contained columns from the Liability table, duplicate records were appearing. The Liability table was removed from these lists to prevent the issue. (PMG-719764)

Integrations and Data Services


Enhancements


Investment Data Download

  • Improved transactions processing: The way in which SmartOffice handles downloaded investment transactions that already exist in the system was improved. Now, a log message indicates when a transaction was skipped because it already existed in SmartOffice. Previously, the transactions were being marked as skipped with no message to indicate the reason. (PMG-663852)
  • Albridge updates for account qualified status: SmartOffice now updates the Qualified Account check box on the investment Account Detail content link based on data received from Albridge. (PMG-710108)
  • New Orion processing status: When there are errors processing specific price records in Orion data downloads, a status of Processed with Error now appears in the import log to indicate that the rest of the job was processed. (PMG-722101)

SmartIntegrator/SmartXchange

  • New columns exposed through SmartIntegrator: Developers can now access the following SmartOffice columns from their applications through SmartIntegrator:

- Business.SIC


- InsProduct.InsProductTypeText


- Policy.PremModeText


- Vendor.NAICGroupCode


- WebAddress.WebAddressTypeText



(PMG-706453)


  • New policy properties exposed: Two properties of the Policy object, ModifiedByID and ModifiedByObj, were exposed to developers through SmartIntegrator. These properties refer to the User object, allowing developers to access to data about the user who modified a policy. (PMG-720989)

Resolved Issues


Investment Data Download

  • An error that was preventing Albridge downloads from processing was resolved. (PMG-675416)
  • In the Data Import Log, log entries were not displaying data in the Import Detail and Errors/Not Imported columns. This issue was resolved. (PMG-691219)
  • An issue with Albridge downloads that was causing active investment accounts to be closed in SmartOffice was resolved. (PMG-692193)
  • When SEI downloads were imported into SmartOffice, rep information was being inserted as custodian information. This issue was resolved. (PMG-701767)
  • When non-bond securities with a price factor of 1.00 were sent as bonds from National Financial, SmartOffice was updating the price factor of the security to 0.01 instead of updating the security type. This issue was resolved. (PMG-703628)
  • An issue with the delivery of position data from TD Ameritrade was resolved. Due to a processing issue on the server issue, some users were not receiving the data. (PMG-706429)
  • Some closed investment position shares were not being set to zero in SmartOffice after data was downloaded from Albridge. This issue was resolved. (PMG-711723)
  • An issue that was preventing some TD Ameritrade data downloads from being processed was resolved. (PMG-719037)
  • An "invalid license key" error that was causing issues with Albridge data downloads was resolved. (PMG-720731)
  • The Data Import Log was not properly capturing errors related to inserted and update position history data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-721313)

Pending Case Download

  • An issue that was preventing some pending cases from being updated through Direct Download and Replace was resolved. A status of Processing was also added to provide more accurate information about HO pending case status. (PMG-702313)
  • An issue with downloaded pending cases that was causing duplicate and Reassigned/Old advisor entries to appear in SmartOffice pending cases was resolved. (PMG-705862)
  • During manual Side-by-Side Processing, the HO Requirements List was appearing as read-only when the policy number contained more than 15 characters. This issue was resolved. (PMG-723888)

SmartIntegrator/SmartXchange

  • Menus and buttons were updated to reflect National Financial’s rebranding of the Streetscape product to Wealthscape. (PMG-703224)
  • When users started the AnnuityNet or Lifespeed integration from a SmartOffice contact record, the contact's Primary Advisor field was becoming blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-713820)
  • An error that was occurring when users tried to access Constant Contact from SmartOffice was resolved. (PMG-710469)

SmartOffice Anywhere Changes


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


Enhancements


  • Link to SmartOffice Anywhere app: Users who access the SmartOffice Anywhere mobile website on an iOS or Android device now see a link to the mobile app. (PMG-705342)
  • Personal holdings in position list: The Global Investment Positions List in SmartOffice Anywhere now displays personal holdings (bank accounts, notes receivable, personal property and real estate). (PMG-716270)

Resolved Issues


  • When a user had the default sign-in location set to something other than Dashboard, links in activity outcome alerts were not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-676926)
  • On the Dashboard calendar, users who navigated to a specific date and then clicked the Add button were finding that the activity's default date was always the current date. This issue was resolved. (PMG-702871)
  • An issue with set management was resolved. In the Set Members list of a set and in the Set Membership list of a contact record, tapping or clicking the Add button was causing the app to remain in a processing state.  (PMG-703494)
  • For some sets, the number of members displayed on the Set List was different from the number displayed on the set detail screen. This issue was resolved. (PMG-705249)
  • When the Display Investment Account based on Investment Account Advisor List option was selected in SmartView for Advisors Setup in SmartOffice Pro, non-SmartView users were unable to see investment accounts in SmartOffice Anywhere. This issue was resolved. (PMG-706404)
  • An issue affecting user accounts with record sharing enabled was resolved. In SmartOffice Anywhere Settings, the Super User setting in the Security section was not being automatically cleared for these users (record-sharing users cannot also be Super Users). (PMG-710794)
  • EbixEnterprise customers using single sign-on were finding that SmartOffice Anywhere was prompting users to sign in instead of signing them in automatically. This issue was resolved. (PMG-713745)
  • When the Assign new contacts to the users who create them office setting was enabled in SmartOffice Pro, contacts created in SmartOffice Anywhere were not being automatically assigned a primary advisor as expected. The app now properly assigns the contact linked to the user's account as the primary advisor on new contacts. (PMG-714192)
  • The status of advisor records created in SmartOffice Anywhere was not being set to Active by default. This issue was resolved. (PMG-714478)
  • Parent-office users with Enterprise View turned on were unable to see child-office investment accounts in the Global Investment Accounts List. This issue was resolved. (PMG-715411)
  • Record-sharing users who are specialists were unable to view documents posted to shared contacts by the owner or the specialist. This issue was resolved. (PMG-719200)
  • Performance issues related to the Link Account to Contact feature and the way in which it posts entries to the SmartPad were resolved. (PMG-719787)
  • After selecting the Link Account to Contact command, users were encountering an error when they clicked the Link Contact button. This issue was resolved. (PMG-722357)
  • An "empty file" error that occurred when users tried to open documents was resolved. (PMG-722650)
  • When the Link Account to Contact feature was used, SmartOffice Anywhere was not linking the primary advisor associated with the contact to the account. This issue was resolved. (PMG-722907)