Release Notes - SmartOffice 2018 Release 4

About This Document

For general information about SmartOffice release notes, visit the Release Notes home page.

Revision History

These release notes may be revised after their initial publication. This section lists the dates of any revisions as well as a list of changes.

November 13, 2018

• Initial publication.

November 15, 2018

• Integrations and Data Services: Removed Insurance Sync enhancements.

November 27, 2018

• Core System: Removed "SmartPad and Activity Log performance improvements" enhancement.

December 3, 2018

• Core System: Added "Ability to Export Lists to Excel Without the Plug-In" enhancement (PMG-751030).

• Release Overview: Added a link to the highlights overview video.

Release Overview

SmartOffice 2018 Release 4 features enhancements to the side menu and other user interface elements, as well as the addition of template management features to the Correspondence Wizard. For agencies, this release includes the ability to prevent particular products and riders from being used for new pending cases and policies. And SmartOffice Anywhere users on mobile devices now have access to a redesigned Alert Center.

This release also resolves errors and other issues identified in SmartOffice 2018 Release 3 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

• Side menu search

• Ability to export lists to Excel without the plug-in

• Template management features in the Correspondence Wizard

• Improved photo/office logo upload tool

Agency Management

• Option to hide products and riders

• Advisor record alert after case creation

• Improved attachment support for presale correspondence

• Improved copying of carrier commission records to speed receipts

SmartOffice Anywhere

• Alert Center redesign for mobile

System Requirements

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

Note Regarding Text Changes in SmartOffice

This release may contain minor changes to text in dialog boxes and other areas of the SmartOffice user interface. Changes of this type are typically made to correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and other language-related issues. Such changes normally are not listed in this document unless they affect the way the application works.

SmartOffice Pro Changes

Core System

Featured Enhancements

Side Menu Search

Changes were made to the side menu to enhance its usability.

A new search box located just under the side menu tabs helps users find menu items more quickly. Typing in the box dynamically narrows down the list of menu items.

In addition, reduced spacing between menu categories and items make the side menu more compact, reducing the need to scroll. (PMG-796289)

Ability to Export Lists to Excel Without the Plug-In

Users with data export rights can now export list data to Excel (.xls) format without the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice. (This feature is being rolled out to servers gradually over the coming weeks.)

When a user exports a list containing 1,500 or fewer rows, SmartOffice generates the Excel file immediately and sends it to the user's browser for download. If the list contains more than 1,500 rows, SmartOffice sends the request to the Job Queue for processing and notifies the user through the Alert Center when the Excel file is ready to download. For more information, see Printing or Exporting a List. (PMG-751030)

Template Management Features in the Correspondence Wizard

Users can now create, preview and edit correspondence templates directly from the Correspondence Wizard. On the Template Selection step of the wizard, clicking the Template Administration button in the Template Name field starts the template creation workflow. Also, in the list of available templates, users can click the icon in the Open column for any template to view and/or edit it.

(PMG-822007)

Improved Photo/Office Logo Upload Tool

The utility for uploading a contact photo or office logo now gives users improved control over the image's appearance. After uploading an image, users can zoom in and out using the mouse scroll wheel and drag the image to specify the portion SmartOffice should display. In addition, buttons for rotating the image 90 degrees left or right have replaced the previous options for rotating the image 90 degrees upon upload.

(PMG-777595)

Other Enhancements

General

• Ability to hide reports and templates provided by Ebix: When searching for Dynamic Reports or correspondence templates, users can now exclude from the results any reports or templates created by Ebix. To exclude these items, select the Hide Ebix provided content option near the bottom of the search dialog box before clicking the Search button. Note that this new option is available only when the All Reports or All Templates search option is also selected.

Dynamic Report Search

Correspondence Template Search

(PMG-779389)

• Field search for mass modification: A search box was added to the Mass Modification dialog box to help users find the column they want to modify more quickly. As the user types a query into the box, the list of columns below changes dynamically to display only those columns that match the query.

(PMG-809760)

• New administrator read-only right: Enterprise customers can now give certain System office users read-only access to office and user account data across office hierarchies. The new administrator right, labeled Administrator: User Read-Only, can be assigned only from the System office to users within that office. Note that users with this right do have the ability to reset user passwords, but they cannot see the new passwords or create specific passwords; instead, the system randomly generates these passwords and e-mails them to users. (PMG-821456)

Contact Management

• More spouse information for contact lists: Users can now view spouse address and spouse e-mail address information on contact lists. To do so, add the Spouse Preferred Address and Spouse Preferred E-mail columns from the Personal table to these lists. (PMG-781138)

• "Previous" phone number type: To mark an old phone number without deleting it from the database, users can now assign the Previous type to the phone number. This new choice was added to the Phone Type drop-down list in the Phone Information dialog box.

(PMG-822781)

Correspondence

• Enhanced E-mail Queue visibility: The system now takes office security settings into account when determining what records to display in the E-mail Queue. A user can now see not only his or her own sent e-mail messages but also:

- Messages sent by other users for whom the user proxies.

- Messages sent by all users in the office (if the user is a Super User).

- Messages sent by users in child offices (if the user has Enterprise View turned on).

(PMG-822019)

Dynamic Reports

• Error log reports: An Error Log category was added to the Other family of Dynamic Reports, allowing users to report on errors logged in the system. (PMG-802123)

• Report copy and import enhancements: Improvements were made to the Dynamic Report copy and import processes:

- When a copy of a report is created, the new report is now marked as Only Modifiable By Me by default.

- When a user imports a dashboard containing Dynamic Reports, the reports are now marked as Only Modifiable By Me by default so that other users in the office can see and copy them. Previously, the reports were being marked Private by default and were therefore invisible to other users.

(PMG-822041)

Resolved Issues

General

• An issue that was causing slow performance and was signing users out of SmartOffice with a "failed to load object" error was resolved. (PMG-605735)

• Several issues with creating custom duplicate-record detection methods were resolved:

- In the Duplicate Records dialog box, Internet Explorer users were seeing distorted text in the Detection Method section.

- Internet Explorer users who selected the First Character option for a column were finding that their selection was not being saved when they clicked the OK button.

- When any column was removed from the Columns Selected list and then added again, the word “null” was displaying in place of the table name.

- The First Character check box was enabled even when no column in the Columns Selected list was selected or when the Columns Selected list was empty.

In addition, when the Agencies & Advisors user right was turned off for a user, SmartOffice was requiring the user to select a set in order to run a manual duplicate record check. And when the Sets user right was turned off for a user, the user was encountering an error when attempting to run a manual duplicate record check. (PMG-783740)

• Some users were unable to access SmartOffice features because neither the Base SmartOffice nor the Agency Package license was selected for their user accounts. This issue was occurring when a user account's status was changed from Disabled to Enabled, when a user account's tier license was changed, or when a user account was created in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-786190)

• Two issues with the Department/Team Hierarchy content link in Office Settings were resolved:

- Deleting a department record was causing the page to go blank.

- Users who added members to a department record were receiving an error message about duplicate records or were being signed out of SmartOffice.

(PMG-802117)

• An issue with user groups and custom page layouts was resolved. The issue occurred when a user's default user group was set to something other than All Users in Office. When the user applied a page layout containing custom drop-down lists, the choices displayed in those drop-down lists were not appropriate for the user's default group in certain instances. (PMG-806085)

• On the User Accounts list, users who selected an account and clicked any content link were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-807124)

• While typing a SmartSearch query in the Search box, users who selected a match from the dynamic results menu using the keyboard were encountering several issues:

- A search results dialog box was opening unnecessarily.

- If the user selected an advisor, carrier, or other non-contact/business record, clicking an entry in the results dialog box was displaying a contact or business record.

These issues were resolved. (PMG-808855)

• When editing certain portlets in existing page layouts, users were unable to modify the portlet height pixel value. This issue was resolved. (PMG-809312)

• An issue with printed lists was resolved. The copyright notice at the bottom of the printout was not displaying the current year. (PMG-811390)

• When a user created a record alert for multiple records at once, a duplicate instance of the SmartOffice Pro user interface was appearing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-812280)

• An issue with custom portlets in custom page layouts was resolved. The issue occurred when a user added a custom check box field to a custom portlet and also added the predefined Custom Fields portlet to the same layout. In this scenario, users were unable to save changes made to the check box in the custom portlet. (PMG-813840)

• In some instances, users were finding that changes they made to their user preferences were not taking effect until the next time they signed in. This issue was resolved. (PMG-817383)

• The layout of the dialog box that prompts users to link their contact record to their user account was distorted in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-817537)

• An issue with keyboard navigation when entering postal addresses was resolved. When the cursor was in the ZIP Code field and the user pressed the TAB key, the cursor was moving to the Country field instead of the ZIP Code Lookup button. The cursor now moves to the button instead, and the user can press the space bar to open the list of ZIP Codes. (PMG-821889)

• Enterprise customers who do not use tier licensing were encountering issues when attempting to post files to SmartOffice from Windows. The following items were missing from the Posting Details dialog box:

- Advice option

- Categories in the Category drop-down list

These issues were resolved. (PMG-824641)

• When office security was enabled, users who had a large number of proxy relationships were encountering long delays when they tried to sign in to the system. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826007)

• In some instances, when a drop-down list was customized to hide certain choices, those choices were still appearing in the drop-down list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826372)

• In some instances, when a user with office-level list layout customization rights set up a custom sort for a list, SmartOffice was not asking the user whether the change should be applied to the user's account or to all accounts in the office. In addition, the system was saving the custom sort as the new office-level default layout for the list. These issues were resolved. (PMG-828580)

• SmartOffice was automatically signing out users after 10 minutes of inactivity regardless of the session time-out setting configured for the office. This issue was resolved. (PMG-830201)

Contact Management

• An issue affecting contacts that were created using the New (Comprehensive) workflow was resolved. The issue occurred when the user selected the Add Additional Contact option to create more than one contact during the workflow. At the end of the workflow, when user assignments were selected for the new contacts, individual user assignments were being applied to all of the contacts created, but user group assignments were being applied only to the primary contact. (PMG-563842)

• An issue with updating business addresses was resolved. The issue occurred when a user marked a business's old address as bad, added a new address, and then marked the new address as the primary and preferred address. After the user applied the new address to all of the business' employee records, the bad address was still marked as the preferred and primary address. (PMG-797296)

• The Last Contact field in contact records was updating nightly instead of immediately for users in some time zones. This issue was resolved. (PMG-805042)

• Corporate customers who configured their SmartOffice servers to make electronically downloaded web addresses read-only were encountering an issue. This configuration setting was making web address record fields like Mark as Preferred and Remarks read-only as well. This issue was resolved so that users can edit those fields even when the web address itself is read-only. (PMG-807496)

• When the layout of the contact Personal content link was customized, some users were encountering an error when they tried to access it. This issue was resolved. (PMG-816888)

• An issue was occurring when a custom page layout included a custom portlet containing the Referred By field. When a user entered a contact in that field, the system was asking the user, "Send a thank you letter to null?" This issue was resolved so that the prompt now displays the referrer's name. (PMG-817548)

• On the business Detail content link, when users clicked the Primary Contact hyperlink to open the Search Contacts dialog box, the New button for creating a contact was missing. This button was restored. (PMG-818052)

• An error that some users were encountering when they searched for contacts was resolved. (PMG-820652)

• An error that some users were encountering when opening sets was resolved. (PMG-821459)

• When the layout of the contact Personal content link was customized, the Social Security number was disappearing when users clicked inside the SS # field and then clicked outside the field. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822731)

• The following actions were producing errors:

- Adding residence fax or business fax phone numbers to contacts

- Adding a business relation to an existing contact's key relations

- Adding a contact to an existing business's key relations

These issues were resolved. (PMG-829431)

• On the contact Key Relations content link, users who tried to add entries to the Business Relations section were encountering an error in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-830304)

• An error that users were encountering when they tried to add a Business Fax-type phone number to a business record was resolved. (PMG-831492)

Correspondence

• In the Correspondence Wizard, the option to sort printed labels by ZIP Code was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-738273)

• Issues that were preventing follow-up activities from being created properly during the correspondence workflow were resolved. (PMG-822044)

Dynamic Reports

• An issue affecting enterprise customers who redirect Dynamic Report generation, printing and export to SmartOffice's report instance was resolved. When these customers ran reports that returned only one result, SmartOffice was automatically opening the record instead of displaying it in a list, and this was causing an error. To prevent this, the system no longer opens single results automatically. (PMG-815915)

• The system was not allowing users to enable record sharing from a Dynamic Report result lists. This issue was resolved. (PMG-832759)

PDF Reports

• In some instances, users were encountering an error when attempting to run PDF reports created using the Save Settings option. This issue was resolved. (PMG-827670)

SmartPad

• An issue with the Audit Trail feature was resolved. When a contact custom page layout included custom portlets, changes to the Type field were not being recorded accurately on the SmartPad Changes tab. (PMG-655246)

• The Audit Trail feature was treating field values in newly created records as changes, adding an entry for each field in the Audit Trail database tables. This was causing performance issues when large numbers of records were imported into SmartOffice Pro. To improve performance, Audit Trail no longer treats field data in new records as changes that require tracking; the system now tracks changes to fields in existing records only. (PMG-828560)

SmartCalendar

Enhancements

• Improved Link Activity workflow: The method of recording an activity outcome from a contact, business, advisor or agency record (Menu > Activity Options > Activity Outcome) was improved. In the Link Activity dialog box, selecting the Enter the Outcome for an existing Activity option now displays past activities in addition to current and future activities. (PMG-813771)

• Expanded enterprise activity reporting: Enterprise View users can now run calendar reports, Activity Statistics reports and Dynamic Reports for child-office users regardless of whether those users have the Show to other users options selected in their calendar preferences. Previously, the system was preventing Enterprise View users from running those reports for users who selected that preference. (PMG-816100)

Resolved Issues

• When scheduling an activity for a past date or time, users who marked the activity as Done when prompted were seeing a second prompt to mark the activity as Done. This issue was resolved. (PMG-793026)

• An issue that was causing the system to display activity reminders for deleted activities was resolved. (PMG-801530)

• The system was generating alerts for unfinished activities even when the option to receive those alerts was cleared in User Preferences. This issue was resolved. (PMG-803026)

• When an investment position linked to an activity was deleted, opening the activity was generating an error in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-810229)

• While viewing the calendar, Internet Explorer users were not seeing the activity type color legend in the side menu. This issue was resolved. (PMG-824880)

• Users were encountering an error when trying to complete the comprehensive activity outcome workflow after selecting the Contact Made - Enter Scheduled Call outcome option. This issue was resolved. (PMG-825246)

• Users who tried to mark an activity as Done were encountering an error when the activity was linked to a deleted opportunity. This issue was resolved. (PMG-825382)

• On the calendar Agenda view, clicking the Show Other Users' Calendar link and selecting the View other user's activities option was displaying a blank dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-827041)

• Some users were encountering an error when running the Mass Task Creation utility. This issue was resolved. (PMG-827645)

• On the calendar Day view, an issue that was preventing users from rescheduling recurring activities was resolved. (PMG-829815)

SmartLeads

Resolved Issues

• On the All - Leads List, the Start the Timer and Make/Receive a Phone Call commands were not working for leads with no associated contact information. The system now displays an error message when no contact information exists. (PMG-831853)

SmartOpportunities

Enhancements

• Opportunity custom field merge codes: User can now pull custom field data from opportunity records into SmartOffice correspondence. Merge codes for the custom fields located on the opportunity Detail and Custom content links were added to the system. (PMG-764721)

• New default for displaying opportunity stage actions: On the opportunity Detail content link, under Stage Actions, SmartOffice now displays all stages by default. This enables users to see all incomplete stage actions from previous stages. Previously, the system was displaying the active stage by default, which made it easy for users to miss incomplete actions from previous stages. (PMG-808247)

Resolved Issues

• In the Marketing Options dialog box, users who selected the Add to Opportunity option were encountering an issue with the default opportunity process selection. When the name of a process contained the word "default," the system was automatically selecting that process, even when a different process was designated as the default in Opportunity Setup. This issue was resolved. (PMG-811491)

• Customizing the page layout of the opportunity Detail content link to include certain portlets was causing other opportunity content links to disappear. This issue was resolved. (PMG-815671)

• When an opportunity was linked to a shared contact, users who modified the opportunity stage were encountering an error when they tried to save their changes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-821901)

• When creating or modifying custom page layout templates for opportunity records, users were finding that Process, Contact Name, Campaign Name, Initial and Close Probability (%) fields were missing from the list of available fields. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826028)

• An issue that was preventing users from changing an opportunity's stage using the Actions - Update column on the Opportunity List was resolved. (PMG-831981)

Advisors/Agencies

Featured Enhancements

Advisor Record Alert After Case Creation

SmartOffice now provides special handling of advisor record alerts. In addition to displaying an existing alert when the advisor record is accessed, the system now displays the alert when users create pending cases for that advisor. This enhancement is useful for immediately displaying important information about the advisor once case creation is complete (note that this feature applies only to the primary advisor). The alert appears at the end of the new pending case workflow, after the system generates standard underwriting guidelines. Learn more about record alerts. (PMG-728976)

Improved Attachment Support for Presale Correspondence

The ability to send presale e-mail correspondence with images was enhanced on the Presale Activity/Proposals tab of advisor, agency, contact and business records. When the user selects multiple presale records and then selects Menu > Send e-mail with image(s), images from all of the selected presale records are included as attachments in the generated e-mail message. (PMG-796628)

Other Enhancements

General

• New presale merge codes: Several merge codes were added for enhanced presale activity correspondence. The following four codes expand to display details about the user linked to a presale activity, as defined in the user's linked contact record:

- Address(Preferred)

- EmailAddress(Preferred)

- JobTitle

- PhoneNumber(Preferred)

Five additional merge codes, PresaleAlphaNum1 - PresaleAlphaNum5, display data from the Miscellaneous Information section of a presale activity record. (PMG-231871)

• Expanded agency opportunity and presale listings: The agency Opportunities and Presale Activity/Proposals tabs now display opportunities and presale activities associated with all advisors linked to the agency. For example, if advisor Phil Anderson is linked to the ABC agency, users who view the ABC agency's Opportunities and Presale Activity/Proposals tabs will see Phil's opportunities and presale activities listed. (PMG-796620)

• Carrier data in advisor request requirement lists: In advisor request requirement lists and Dynamic Reports, users can now display information about the carrier linked to the request. To do so, add columns from the Carrier Basic Info table to those list layouts. (PMG-806700)

• Mass modification for advisor/agency reports: When viewing results for certain Advisor/Agency-family Dynamic Reports, users can now access the Mass Modify command to edit certain fields for multiple records at once. Mass modification was added for reports in the Advisor - Continuing Education, Appointment, Compliance, Contract and License categories. (PMG-813055)

• Additional advisor page layout options: Users now have more content options when creating custom page layouts for advisor records. Several new predefined portlets are now available:

- Advisor Contract List

- Appointment List

- Compliance Status

- Continuing Education Credit Information

- License Information

(PMG-815265)

• L&A Alert option: An L&A Alert option was added to the advisor Personal and agency Detail content links. This option relates to an enhancement planned for an upcoming SmartOffice release and is not currently functional. (PMG-817334)

• New presale action choice: On the presale activity Detail content link, an Electronic Application choice was added to the Action drop-down list. (PMG-824831)

• New Expired status for licenses: On the advisor License/Compliance content link, users can now mark license records as Expired using a new choice in the Status drop-down list. (PMG-826915)

SmartView for Advisors

• Additional SmartView for Advisors visibility options: Administrators can now hide the pending case Riders/Reinsurance and Additional Info. content links from SmartView for Advisors users. On the User Rights content link of the user account, check boxes for those content links are now available in the Licenses column under SmartPolicies. To hide a content link from the user, clear its check box. (PMG-815829)

Resolved Issues

General

• When no default follow-up date was configured for new presale activities in Policy/Case Setup, SmartOffice was automatically scheduling a follow-up date for the next day by default. This issue was resolved so that the follow-up date on new presale activities is now blank when no office default is defined. (PMG-803607)

• An issue with activity outcome workflows started from an advisor record was resolved. The Menu > Activity Options > Activity Outcome command was not working when the user selected the Enter an Outcome without linking to an activity option. (PMG-811973)

• An issue with custom page layouts applied to the advisor/agency Add'l Detail content link was resolved. When the page layout included a custom portlet containing custom fields from the advisor/agency Custom content link, data entered into those fields was not being saved. (PMG-825450)

• An error that users were encountering when they tried to merge advisor records linked to different agencies was resolved. (PMG-826707)

• The Assign Comm To field was read-only in Contracting-type advisor requests. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826744)

• Several issues with advisor requests were resolved:

- After selecting a supervisor for a new Contracting-type advisor request, saving the record was causing the Supervisor field to appear blank.

- When a user changed the status of an advisor request to Completed from the Follow-Up section and then added a new contract, the supervisor contract was not appearing in the dialog box, even though the system was saving it.

- When a supervisor was not specified on an advisor record and a user added a Contracting-type advisor request for that advisor, the Supervisor Name field on the request was displaying a value of Unknown.

(PMG-827128)

• An error that was occurring when users tried to mass merge duplicate advisor records was resolved. (PMG-827460)

• When users created custom page layouts for advisor records, the Referred By, Supervisor and Case Manager columns were not present in the list of available columns. This issue was resolved. (PMG-827940)

• An issue that Enterprise View users were encountering when creating a presale activity for a child-office contact and advisor was resolved. When the associated follow-up activity was created, the activity description contained the wrong contact and advisor names. (PMG-830193)

SmartPolicies

Enhancements

• Policy record layout improvements: On the policy Basic Information content link, the height of the Policy Relationship List was increased to reduce the need to scroll. The same change was made to the Rider List on the policy Coverage content link. (PMG-542127)

• Duplicate merge for policy subaccounts: Users now have several new options for managing duplicate variable life and annuity subaccount records. On the product Subaccounts content link, the following commands are now available at the subaccount level:

- Menu > Merge Duplicate Products

- Menu > Merge Non-Duplicate Products

On the policy Subaccounts content link, the following commands are now available at the subaccount level:

- Menu > Advanced Options > Merge Duplicate Policies

- Menu > Advanced Options > Merge Non-Duplicate Policies

(PMG-815524)

• Blank option for source column filter: On policy and pending case lists, users who apply a column filter to the Source of Data column can now set the Equal To value to be blank. This enhancement enables users to display only those records that have no source specified. (PMG-821886)

Resolved Issues

• Users who posted e-mail messages with attachments to SmartOffice policy records were finding that the attachments were not appearing on the policy Letters/Documents content link. This issue was resolved. (PMG-794051)

• While viewing the results of a SmartPad - Advisor/Agency-category Dynamic Report, users were finding that the Menu > Copy Tagged Notes to Other Contact(s) command was not working. (PMG-816452)

• An issue that was occurring when users sent correspondence from the results of a policy Dynamic Report was resolved. The system was posting the correspondence to the policy records of contacts who did not pass the correspondence validation check (due to missing e-mail address, etc.). (PMG-821822)

• The Policy Summary PDF report was displaying benefit amounts in scientific notation when those amounts totaled in the millions or billions. This issue was resolved. (PMG-829207)

• An issue with the Policy Detail PDF report was resolved. The report was not displaying remarks for the following plan types: COL, GUL, IUL, Life Settlement, Permanent, SUL and VWL. (PMG-829471)

• Users were unable to send intra-office e-mail from the results of some Policy-family Dynamic Reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-830203)

• An error that occurred when users ran the Policy Summary PDF report for a household was resolved. (PMG-832711)

• On the Benefits content link of annuity policy and pending case records, the last Coverage section and the Remarks section were not aligned properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-833136)

Insurance Products and Carriers

Enhancements

• Mass modification for insurance products: Users now have access to the Mass Modify command (under Menu > Advanced Options) when viewing product record lists. With this enhancement, users can currently modify the Target Period, Effective Date or Expiration Date field in multiple product records at once. (PMG-815760)

• Mass modification for insurance carriers: Users now have access to the Mass Modify command (under Menu > Advanced Options) when viewing carrier record lists. Twenty-four carrier fields are eligible for mass modification. (PMG-815767)

• Ability to mass-assign product options: SmartOffice now allows users to assign a product option to multiple insurance products at once. This features is available in Setup > Policy/Case Setup > Product Options. Select a product option from the list, click the Options button , and then select Mass Assign Options. SmartOffice skips any products that have already been assigned the selected option. (PMG-816240)

Resolved Issues

• An issue with viewing underwriting guidelines on the carrier Underwriting Guidelines and Notes content link was resolved. After opening an existing underwriting guideline and navigating to the requirements grid, users who closed the window were finding that any requirements they added or selected were being removed from the grid. (PMG-815194)

• Product-related Dynamic Reports were displaying products from resource-office carriers that the office had not subscribed to. This issue was resolved. (PMG-821103)

• Copying product underwriting guidelines was not copying resource-office requirements. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822163)

SmartCaseManager

Featured Enhancements

Option to Hide Products and Riders

Insurance products and riders can now be hidden so that they are not available for selection when users create pending case, policy, presale activity and commission rate records. The new Hide from pending case and policy option is available on the Product Settings content link of a product/rider and is available for records residing in the local office as well as records residing in other offices.

(PMG-820809)

Other Enhancements

• Faster selection of requirement types: When adding requirements manually to a pending case, users can now quickly select all requirement types quickly by clicking the new check box next to Select Requirement Type(s).

Note that clicking this check box selects all requirement types except for Manual. (PMG-150207)

• New case statuses: Several pending case status choices were added to the system (the relevant stage for each is shown in parentheses):

- Application Not Returned (Inactive)

- Application Sent to Client (Proposed)

- Partial Conversion (Active)

(PMG-815965)

• Copying of inforce policy import settings from System office: (Enterprise customers only.) When an administrator in the System office creates an office, the inforce policy import settings configured for the System office (Setup > Policy/Case Setup > DataXchange Setup > Inforce Policy Import Setup) are now automatically copied to the new office. This saves administrators time when configuring inforce policy feeds for new offices. In addition, when an administrator modifies these settings in the System office, the system now presents the administrator with the option to apply those changes to one or more existing offices. (PMG-821586)

• Audit trail columns for policy/pending case notes: On the Changes tab in Policy Notes and Pending Case Notes, three columns from the Audit Trail table are now available for addition to the list layout: Parent Record DB Table ID, Parent Record ID and Parent Record Office ID. These columns show identifier information for the parent record linked to the record whose field was changed, enabling advanced, granular tracking of changes. (PMG-821893)

• Setup changes for inforce policy data feeds: In Policy/Case Setup, several changes were made to the DataXchange Setup > Carrier Data Feed Setup section:

- The section was renamed Inforce Policy Import Setup.

- Some options were reorganized, and separate sections were created for policy data and contact data to be imported.

- The new Contact section contains options for privatizing new contacts and updating existing contact information.

As part of this enhancement, the command Menu > Data Feed Setup, which is available from the carrier Detail content link, was renamed Menu > Inforce Policy Import Setup.

(PMG-822158)

Resolved Issues

• An issue with selecting the Send one case per letter option for case status reports was resolved. When an advisor had a mix of individual and group pending cases and the Include group pending cases option was selected, SmartOffice was generating a separate letter for each pending case as expected, but the group cases were being included in every letter. (PMG-816415)

• Several issues with the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box were resolved:

- In the Insured - 1 section, the New button that allowed users to quickly create a primary insured contact was missing. The button was restored.

- After adding a primary insured or modifying the primary insured's contact record using the Primary Insured field's Edit button, users were finding that the system was not updating related information in the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box.

- In some instances, using the Primary Insured field's Edit button was causing the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box to freeze and was preventing the pending case from being created.

- After a user added a primary insured, clicking the Primary Insured hyperlink was not opening the contact/business Search dialog box as expected.

- When a user typed a value in the Primary Insured field and clicked the New button, SmartOffice was opening a list of contacts and businesses instead of the New - Contact Information dialog box.

- When a user changed the primary contact, payor or owner to a business record and then clicked the Finish button, the pending case was not being created.

(PMG-822607, PMG-823960)

• In existing pending case records, users who opened and then closed the Primary Insured record in the Policy Insured List were encountering an error about an invalid age, even when the age was valid. This issue was resolved. (PMG-823672)

• An issue that was causing weighted premiums to be calculated incorrectly for policies and pending cases was resolved. In addition, weighted premium is now recalculated when a policy's modal premium or weighted premium % is modified. (PMG-823799)

• An issue was occurring when the Do not calculate option was selected in the Premium Information section of a policy or pending case. The system was calculating the Comm Annlzd value in the following instances:

- The modal premium was blank or zero and the user entered a value in the 1035 or Lump Sum field.

- The user entered a value in the Target Amount field.

This issue was resolved. (PMG-825809)

• On pending case lists, eight-digit numbers in the Child Case List column (i.e., 10,000,000 and higher) were not formatted properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826532)

• An issue with informal pending cases was resolved. When the page layout of the pending case Detail content link was customized, users who formalized those cases and then tried to modify any fields were encountering an error and could not save their changes. (PMG-828614)

• While viewing a carrier or product record that resides in another office, users who opened Policy/Case Setup and made changes to any settings were getting an error when they tried to save those changes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-831881)

SmartBenefits

Resolved Issues

• Users were encountering an error when they ran group policy Dynamic Reports containing columns from the Business Custom and Group Policy Custom tables. This issue was resolved. (PMG-823477)

• In group policy records, when a member was added to a group plan, the system was allowing the same member to be added to another group plan on the same policy. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826282)

SmartWholesaler

Resolved Issues

• In producer and firm custom page layouts, users who added the SS # field to a custom portlet were unable to save data to that field. In addition, changing the position of the SS # field in a layout was causing errors for any user who tried to save changes to the field. These issues were resolved. (PMG-815332)

SmartCommissions

Featured Enhancements

Improved Copying of Carrier Commission Records to Speed Receipts

When a user copies commission transactions from the a carrier interface record to a speed receipt, the system now allows the user to select an existing speed receipt or create a new one. Previously, the user only had the option to create a speed receipt for the copied records.

The workflow has changed as follows: From the carrier interface record, after the user selects Menu > Copy Commission Records to SRE and specifies the types of transactions to copy, the system now opens a speed receipt search dialog box that also features a New button. (PMG-822355)

Other Enhancements

General

• Additional columns for commission reports: For the following Commission-family Dynamic Report categories, users can now add columns from the contact Personal table to their list layouts when creating reports:

- Advisor Commission

- Advisor Commission Excluding Adjustment Entries

- Agency Commission

- Batch Processing

- Carrier Posting

- Commission Upload

- Projected Advisor Commission

- Projected Agency Commission

- Speed Receipt Entry

(PMG-815544)

Batch Processing

• Default status setting for batch searches: Administrators can now specify a default status for commission batch searches that applies to the entire office. In Commission Setup, go to the Calculation Setup section and select a status under Default Status for Batch Search.

The selected option becomes the default Status field choice when users access the Search Commission Batches dialog box.

(PMG-823961)

Speed Receipts

• New icon for validation command: On the speed receipt Detail content link, the icon for the Validate Reconciliation Status command was changed to distinguish it from the icon for the Validate All Commission Transactions command. Previously, the same icon was being used for both, which was causing usability issues for users who added both commands to the Custom Button Bar. (PMG-817239)

Resolved Issues

General

• Several issues with excess banding and future premium commission calculations were resolved:

- The system was not calculating base commissions in renewal years after the times target had been completed.

- When future premium payments were set up such that the premium mode was different for different years, the due date on the commission was incorrect.

- For the Monthly premium mode with excess banding, the excess commission record for remaining times target was being calculated incorrectly.

- When users accessed the excess banding rate from a policy, the Delete button was missing from the Complex Excess section.

- For the Annually premium mode with excess banding, when the supervisor commission was paid by the carrier and the user calculated commission, the excess commission records for renewal years were showing the commission type as Base instead of Excess.

(PMG-810778)

• When a rider's effective date was not the same as the policy date, users who added a rider commission transaction manually were finding that the commission's due date was being set incorrectly, causing duplicate rider commissions to be created. This issue was resolved. (PMG-817512)

• Two issues with the mass projection of commissions were resolved:

- When the advisor had multiple contracts, the system was giving preference to the first contract in the advisor's contract list. This was causing the system to give preference to the wrong contract in some instances (e.g., selecting the blanket contract when the carrier-specific contract should have been selected).

- When there were multiple commission bands for different product options on commission rates, the system was selecting the first rates added to the policy and was ignoring the expiration date on rates. The system now selects the active rates and not the expired rates by default.

(PMG-817681)

• Some users who tried to copy commission rates from the Edit Commission Rates dialog box were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-818088)

• An issue with mass assigning a contract from the Contract List (Insurance > Contracts) was resolved. When the Assign Comm To field in the Contract Information dialog box was left blank, SmartOffice was populating that field for all of the advisor contract records created with the name of the first advisor selected. The system now populates that field with the name of the same advisor for whom the contract record is created. (PMG-820548)

• After running a Commission Upload-category Dynamic Report, users who clicked the first-column hyperlink of a record in the results were encountering a "missing primary keys" error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-820654)

• An advisor hierarchy issue that occurred when users imported policy .csv files with no Primary Advisor column was resolved. When the import updated the premium on an existing policy, users who viewed the advisor hierarchy for that policy were seeing a duplicate hierarchy. (PMG-822381)

• When an expected commission transaction was generated from a policy's Commissionable Premium Payment Transaction List (on the Policy Transactions content link), the transaction's Calculated Premium value was being improperly rounded in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822755)

• An issue that occurred when a user deleted a commissionable policy transaction was resolved. When the system asked whether linked commission records should be deleted, users who clicked the Yes button were finding that SmartOffice was deleting reconciled/processed commission records along with open ones. This issue was resolved so that the system now deletes open commission records only. (PMG-826013)

• Two issues with commission rates were resolved:

- Users were encountering an error when they tried to add a rate from the policy Commission Hierarchy dialog box.

- When users tried to add a rate from the Commission Rates List of a product, two Commission Banding Information dialog boxes were opening, and the Contract Name field was blank.

(PMG-828936)

Batch Processing

• An issue with the Advisor Checks Under the Minimum Check Amount list in batch processing records was resolved. Column filters applied to the Office Code, Check Amount and Advisor ID columns were not working. (PMG-827054)

Carrier Posting

• When searching for carrier postings, users who entered a date in the Posted On field were finding that SmartOffice was returning no results, even when records posted on that date existed. This issue was resolved. (PMG-827326)

Speed Receipts

• When a user created a speed receipt, the Commission Data section was not expanding to its full width on some monitors. Similarly, when a user created a batch processing record, the Carrier Posting List section was not expanding properly. These issues were resolved. (PMG-816900)

• In speed receipts, an issue was occurring when a commission transaction had a negative Commission Amount ($) value and the commission rate was a flat amount instead of a percentage. When the user calculated the commission for the transaction, the commission values in the linked commission record were positive instead of negative. This issue was resolved. (PMG-817246)

• An issue that occurred when a user created a carrier posting from a speed receipt was resolved. When the user reconciled and then unreconciled an expected commission transaction, SmartOffice was clearing the Actual Premium Paid value from the record, even though the record was still linked to the commission transaction from the speed receipt. (PMG-826695)

SmartInvestments

Enhancements

Investment Accounts

• More complete account owner data for account lists: The Account Owner(s) column in the Investment Accounts table now displays the names of account interested parties who have a role of Owner, Co-Owner, Annuitant or Joint Annuitant. Previously, this column displayed interested parties with a role of Owner only. (PMG-826264)

Resolved Issues

Investment Positions

• On the Position Transactions content link, the Cum. Shares column was displaying no values and was not validating automatically in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822269)

Investment Reports

• Users who selected the Include Cover Page option when running some Account Master-category PDF reports were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-784412)

• In the Asset Allocation PDF report, the Cost column was displaying initial cost instead of taxable cost values. This issue was resolved. (PMG-827724)

• Users were encountering an error when they ran the Investment Summary with Purchase Date PDF report from an investment account. This issue was resolved. (PMG-828926)

• An issue with the Summary of Accounts PDF report was resolved. After running the report, selecting report options and clicking the OK button, users were seeing a report window displaying the report options again. (PMG-830505)

Integrations and Data Services

Enhancements

Investment Data Downloads

• SEI name and address full refresh data processing: SmartOffice now processes the name and address full refresh data that SEI provides on alternate Fridays. This processing occurs in addition to the daily transaction data from SEI that SmartOffice already processes. With this enhancement, any unlinked accounts created in SmartOffice after daily transaction data processing are now linked to the appropriate SmartOffice contacts once the full refresh data file is processed. (PMG-737291)

• DST subaccount security matching enhancement: The algorithm for matching subaccount security data from DST with SmartOffice data was enhanced to take product type information into account. This allows for accurate matching of subaccount securities versus non-variable annuity securities. (PMG-814559)

• Improved general security matching: The algorithm for matching security data in investment data downloads was improved. The system now first attempts to match a downloaded security to a security record in a higher office, such as a parent office or the System office. When a match is found, associated position records in the local office are linked to the higher-office security record. If no matching higher-office security record is found, SmartOffice looks for a match in the local office. (PMG-821430)

• Albridge Treasury security matching enhancement: The algorithm for matching Treasury bill security data downloaded from Albridge was improved. The system now attempts to match only on the combination of the CUSIP and the Symbol. If no match is found, a new security record is created in SmartOffice. Previously, the system was attempting to match on CUSIP only when no match was found for the CUSIP + Symbol combination, which was producing incorrect matches in some instances. (PMG-827051)

Pending Case Downloads

• New requirement status code mapping: For Direct Download and Replace as well as Side-by-Side Processing, SmartOffice now maps the requirement status code 1014800005 to the Reviewed status in SmartOffice requirement records. (PMG-822478)

• Column for case status from carrier: In the HOSTATUSMAIN table, the HOCASESTATUS column now holds the actual pending case status sent by the carrier. Previously, this column was blank for all records. As part of this enhancement, the column can now handle a maximum of 100 characters. (PMG-826789)

• Better handling of new advisor in pending cases: When downloaded pending case data indicates a different advisor for an existing case in SmartOffice, the Direct Download and Replace process now changes the role of the existing advisor to Old - Primary Advisor instead of deleting the advisor. As part of this enhancement, a Source of Data column is now available in the Interested Party table. This column indicates whether an interested party was manually created in the database or created through Direct Download and Replace. (PMG-827930)

Resolved Issues

Inforce Policy Import

• When processing New York Life inforce policy imports, SmartOffice was incorrectly creating advisor records with the same names as contact records that already existed in the database. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822681)

• An issue with the mapping of premium values from inforce policy imports was resolved. Two different values in the import were mapped to the premium value in SmartOffice, causing one value to overwrite the other. (PMG-831064)

Investment Data Downloads

• An issue with DST auto-reconciliation that was creating duplicate balancing transactions was resolved. (PMG-805362)

• Several issues with the processing of annuity data from Orion were resolved:

- Only variable annuity products were being processed.

- No subaccount products were being created in SmartOffice.

- No parent variable annuity and subaccount holdings were being created in SmartOffice.

(PMG-810235)

• An issue with processing investment downloads from National Financial was resulting in incorrect contact records being created in SmartOffice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822711)

Pending Case Downloads

• After processing downloaded pending cases, SmartOffice was creating duplicate SmartPad and pending case notes, even for cases that were not updated. This issue was resolved. (PMG-796813)

• Page layout issues on the HO pending case Notes content link were resolved. (PMG-815782)

• Issues with error handling for cases updated through Direct Download and Replace were resolved:

- When primary insured information was missing from the downloaded case data, the error message in Event Detail was not mentioning that fact. The message now states that a matching insured could not be found.

- For a case that was already processed, when primary insured information was missing from the downloaded case data, the case was moving to a Not Processed status, but the message under Event Detail was not changing to indicate that the status changed due to missing data.

(PMG-821473)

• Mapping of the element in pending case downloads was removed so that stage date and status history records are no longer created in SmartOffice based on that element.  (PMG-821593)

• An issue was causing duplicate pending cases to be created in SmartOffice when Direct Download and Replace was enabled. This was occurring when an existing case in SmartOffice had a case number but no policy number and when the data feed contained a record with the same policy number and a value matching the case number of the existing case. In these instances, the system now updates the existing case instead of creating a new case. (PMG-826853)

• In downloaded pending cases, the Pending status was mapping to the Pending Issue status instead of the Pending status in SmartOffice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-828009)

SmartOffice Anywhere Changes

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

Featured Enhancements

Alert Center Redesign for Mobile

The layout of the Alert Center screen on mobile devices was improved to make alert management easier and more intuitive:

• Extraneous commands, icons and text were removed.

• Bold fonts have been used to make text more readable.

• Alerts dates are now aligned under the Date column heading.

• The layout is now more compact to reduce the need for scrolling.

(PMG-815338)

Other Enhancements

• Phone Type field for new contacts: On mobile devices, the New Contact screen now includes a Phone Type drop-down list, enabling the user to indicate the type of number being entered. Previously, SmartOffice Anywhere was automatically assigning a default phone type of Mobile to all numbers entered from mobile devices. (PMG-817203)

Resolved Issues

• Users who edited an activity to add a participant were finding that, after they saved their changes, the activity date was changing unexpectedly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-816208)

• For SmartView for Advisors users, alignment issues with the Policies list in SmartOffice Anywhere were resolved. (PMG-820826)

• Enterprise users who rescheduled an activity in SmartOffice Anywhere were finding that the record tags and notes previously applied to the activity were not being retained. This issue was resolved. (PMG-821443)

• On mobile devices, the filter button on the opportunities list was not working properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-826690)