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Last updated: 2025-12-03


Release Notes - SmartOffice 2023 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.


March 15, 2023


  • Initial publication

March 16, 2023


  • SmartPolicies: Added a solution for an issue affecting the PrimaryInsuredInfo merge code (PMG-929223).
  • Integrations and Data Services: Added a solution for a DataXchange Enterprise issue (PMG-929366).

March 17, 2023


  • Advisors/Agencies: Added the "SmartPad access for SmartView for Advisors users" enhancement (PMG-925725).

March 21, 2023


  • Core System: Updated the description for the "Correspondence with Outlook 365 Web App" enhancement (PMG-926854).

March 27, 2023


  • Core System: Added a Dynamic Reports section under Resolved Issues.
  • Core System: Updated the description for the "View More Choice Applies to Subsequent List Pages" enhancement and added a screenshot (PMG-830649)
  • Core System: Updated the description for the "Correspondence with Outlook 365 Web App" enhancement (PMG-926854).

April 17, 2023


  • Release Overview: Added link to release highlights video.

February 20, 2024


  • Removed references to the Plum Life integration, which is no longer available.

Release Overview


SmartOffice 2023 Release 1 introduces compatibility with the web version of Outlook 365 for correspondence, more intuitive list navigation, and a new way to save on storage space. For agencies, this release includes an option to help declutter policy advisor lists as well as several new informal case workflow configuration options. Release 1 also resolves issues identified in SmartOffice 2022 Release 3 and earlier releases.


For a quick overview of this release, see the release highlights video.


Enhancement Highlights


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


Core System



Agency Management



System Requirements


Due to Microsoft's end of support for Windows 8.1 on January 10, 2023, SmartOffice no longer supports that version of Windows. Users of Windows 8.1 are encouraged to upgrade to a newer 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


Correspondence with Outlook 365 Web App

SmartOffice can now be configured to open the Outlook 365 web app when the user selects the Launch E-mail command (from the Correspondence menu or the Correspondence Wizard) or when the user clicks a hyperlinked e-mail address. In User Preferences > Correspondence Options, go to the new Launch E-mail section and select the Open Outlook 365 web app option.


Once the new preference is saved, selecting Launch E-mail opens a new message in Outlook 365 with the To field prefilled. This feature requires a Microsoft 365 subscription but does not require the SmartOffice for Microsoft 365 add-in. (PMG-926854)


View More Choice Applies to Subsequent List Pages

By default, selecting View More at the bottom of a list displays up to 1,500 records, but when a user navigates to subsequent pages of the list, the system reverts to displaying 50 records per page. With this enhancement, the administrator can configure the office to keep displaying up to 1,500 records on subsequent list pages. Go to Setup > Office Settings and turn on the option labeled Automatically display 1,500 records per page in a list after the user selects View More. Note that enabling this option may slow down system performance.


(PMG-830649)


Option to Not Save Attachments to SmartOffice

To help save storage space, administrators can now set up SmartOffice so that the system does not save e-mail attachments from outgoing e-mail messages. Go to Setup > Office Settings > Office Correspondence Options and select the new Do not store attachments from outgoing e-mails in SmartOffice option under E-mail Attachment Options.


(PMG-920217)


Other Enhancements


General

  • Additional columns for user list: To obtain more information about user accounts, administrators can now add columns from the Modified By table to the user accounts list (Setup > User Accounts). For example, the newly available Modified By column shows the last user who modified the account. (PMG-921978)

Contact Management

  • Custom data columns for household reports: Users can now add columns displaying contact and business custom field data to Household-category Dynamic Reports. In addition, users can add columns displaying household custom field data to Household Members-category reports. (PMG-906703)

Resolved Issues


General

  • An issue that was preventing users from deleting call scripts was resolved. (PMG-919027)
  • An issue that was allowing users to access disabled SmartOffice offices through single sign-on (SSO) was resolved. (PMG-921406)
  • In some instances, dragging the edge of a list column heading to change its width was not causing the data in that column to move accordingly. This was causing column headings and data to be out of alignment. This issue was resolved. (PMG-925742)
  • Printing a list using the Print Record Details option was causing records to appear cropped in the printout. This issue was resolved. (PMG-926275)
  • On record lists, an issue was occurring when a user selected multiple records and then navigated to another tab. When the user returned to the record list, the Records Tagged count at the bottom of the list was showing a zero value even though the records were still selected. (PMG-926730, PMG-926735)
  • The help buttons available in certain areas of the system were resized to be more visible. (PMG-926980)
  • For users who have two-step authentication enabled, an issue that was causing sign-in codes to be delayed or to not arrive at all was resolved. (PMG-927139)
  • User rights templates that included the Super User option were not enabling that option when applied. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927186)

Contact Management

  • An issue was occurring when a contact's Sub-Type field contained a manually entered value that was not one of the Sub-Type drop-down list choices. When a user performed an advanced search using that sub-type value as one of the search criteria and with the Both contacts and businesses (all types) option selected, the contact was not appearing in the search results. This issue was also affecting business records in a similar way. (PMG-732815)
  • When the business Detail content link was customized to add a group policy Dynamic Report portlet, the report was not showing any records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-901298)
  • In custom contact page layouts, adding a custom field to the Preferred Communication portlet was preventing users from updating the selected option in that portlet. This issue was resolved. (PMG-923243)
  • An issue was occurring when a contact record with associated policies was linked to a household and was later merged into another contact record that had no holdings. When the household was validated, its value was different after the merge. This issue was resolved. (PMG-924835)
  • Adding the Riskalyze portlet to a custom contact page layout was causing the Print button to disappear from the Custom Button Bar. This issue was resolved. (PMG-926166)
  • When the SmartPad Notes portlet was added to a custom household page layout, users were finding that any notes they created in the portlet were not being saved. This issue was resolved. (PMG-926293)

Data Export/Import

  • When a user exported a list, the window that normally tells the user that the export file is being created and that the file is ready to download was not displaying those messages in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-929139)

Dynamic Reports

  • An issue with Dynamic Reports that filtered on a date field using a popular date range was resolved. When the Ignore Year option was selected and the date range included dates from the next calendar year, the report was not producing any results. This issue was resolved. (PMG-925959)

SmartCalendar


Resolved Issues


  • An issue was occurring when a task's start date or end date was changed at the same time as the task's description. After the task was saved, the relevant SmartPad entry was not reflecting the modified description. (PMG-912568)
  • On the contact Activity Log tab, an issue was occurring when the list layout was customized to make Contact Name the first column. When a user modified a recurring task, the system was not asking whether the changes should be applied to the current occurrence or all future recurrences. This issue was resolved. (PMG-922853)
  • Users were encountering an error when they selected Calendar > Group Scheduling from the side menu. This issue was resolved. (PMG-928691)
  • On the calendar Agenda view, selecting the All Days in Past + Today option from the Date Ranges drop-down list was displaying activities from the current day only. This issue was resolved. (PMG-928757)

SmartOpportunities


Enhancements


  • New related contact roles for opportunities: On the opportunity Related Resources/Competition content link, users now have two additional role choices for related contacts: Co-Insured and Insured. (PMG-926729)
  • Prefilling of presale insured info when linking pending cases: On the opportunity Presale Activity/Proposals content link, when a user tries to link a presale activity to an existing pending case, SmartOffice now prefills the Primary Contact field in the Search Pending Cases dialog box with the name of the presale insured. This enhancement helps the user search more quickly for cases linked to the presale insured. (PMG-927893)

Resolved Issues


  • An issue with adding the Opportunity Notes portlet to a custom opportunity page layout was resolved. When the user selected an option other than All Actions from the Stage drop-down list under Stage Actions for Current/Previous, SmartOffice was still displaying all stage actions. (PMG-925185)
  • When a custom field was added to the Opportunity Detail portlet in a custom opportunity page layout, the Campaign field was becoming mandatory. This issue was resolved. (PMG-925486)

SmartLeads


Resolved Issues


  • On the Unaccepted Leads List, the command for auto-accepting leads using contact record matching was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-924838)
  • In leads Dynamic Reports, the system was not allowing users to create filters based on the Created By field. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927757)

SmartRecruiting


Resolved Issues


  • In the Search Candidates/Recruits dialog box, selecting the New button was prompting the user to search for a contact. This issue was resolved so that the user is now prompted to enter the details of the new candidate/recruit. (PMG-921440)
  • On a candidate's Interview/Actions content link, users who tried to open PDF documents linked to an action were finding that the documents were downloading as .zip files that could not be opened. This issue was resolved. (PMG-922572)

Advisors/Agencies


Enhancements


General

  • Tracking of ERISA training: SmartOffice now makes it easier for users to track advisor/agency compliance regarding Employee Retirement Income Security Act training. When adding a compliance record on the advisor or agency License/Compliance content link, users can select the new ERISA (Training) choice from the Compliance Type drop-down list.

(PMG-927138)



SmartView for Advisors

  • SmartPad access for SmartView for Advisors users: Advisors who sign in to SmartOffice using a SmartView for Advisors – SmartOffice Format account can now view the contact SmartPad. A home office can provide this feature to an advisor by enabling the SmartPad user right in the advisor's user account. (PMG-925725)

Resolved Issues


General

  • On the advisor Key Relations content link, users who tried to add a policy contact who was not in the contact database were encountering an "insert/update failed" error instead of a message stating that no matching record was found. This issue was resolved. (PMG-600146)
  • Several issues with advisor custom page layouts were resolved:

- When a user added a custom portlet to a layout and then saved the layout without adding any fields, the fields in the other portlets were disappearing.


- Adding fields to the Personal Information portlet was removing the SS # field in some instances.


- The number of fields in the Personal Information portlet was changing in some instances after the default page layout was restored.



(PMG-908237)


  • When the Production Dashboard portlet was added to a custom advisor page layout, the portlet wasn't displaying its title once the layout template was saved and applied. This issue was resolved. (PMG-923384)
  • When users selected multiple advisors or agencies in a list and then selected the Menu > Assign Contacts to the Current Advisor command, the system was displaying duplicate confirmation messages explaining what the command will do. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927286)
  • An issue with viewing presale activities from the advisor Presale Activity/Proposals tab was resolved. When office security was enabled, non-Super Users were unable to view presale activity notes. (PMG-927555)

SmartView for Advisors

  • Group cancer, group accident and group hospital policies were not visible to advisors who access SmartOffice using a SmartView for Advisors - Case Status account. This issue was resolved. (PMG-847800)

Insurance Products and Carriers


Enhancements


  • Ability to add subaccounts to resource products: Users can now add subaccounts and indexed accounts locally for variable life, variable annuity and indexed universal life products that reside in a resource office. (PMG-884500)
  • New annuity and life product types: The following new annuity and life insurance product types are now available in SmartOffice:

- DIA


- MYGA


- SVUL



As part of this enhancement, the following property and casualty product types that were missing from the Plan Type drop-down list when users searched for policies and pending cases were restored: Builders Risk, Cyber Liability, and Fireworks. These product types, along with the Other product type, are now also available for selection when users create property and casualty informal pending cases. (PMG-925062)



Resolved Issues


  • From the Global Product List, users who created a product using the Menu > New 'Product' Record command were finding that resource-office carriers were not appearing in the carrier search results. This issue was resolved. (PMG-785764)
  • An issue with customizing the page layout of the carrier Detail content link was resolved. When the Remarks field under the Vendortext portlet category was added to the layout, the field was not accepting any data. To resolve this issue, the Remarks field was made available under the Carrier - Portlet category instead. (PMG-918839)
  • Product options added to resource-office products were not available for selection in policies and pending cases linked to those products. This issue was resolved. (PMG-926625)
  • When a user posted an e-mail message with attachments to a business record linked to a carrier record, the attachments were not visible on the Letters/Documents content link of the carrier record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927256)

SmartPolicies


Featured Enhancements


Ability to Hide Old Policy Advisor Entries

SmartOffice now allows an office to prevent advisors with an "old" role (e.g., Old - Primary Advisor, Old - Servicing Advisor) from appearing in the Policy Advisor List in policy, group policy and pending case records. To enable this option, go to Setup > Policy/Case Setup > Advisor Communication > Advisor Privacy and enable the new Hide old advisors in Policy Advisor Lists option.


Users can still display the old advisor entries temporarily by opening a policy record and selecting the Show Old Advisors command from the Options menu. (PMG-923417)


Other Enhancements


  • Merge code to display co-insured data: A new merge code called CoInsuredInfo enables users to dynamically insert information about a policy's co-insured in correspondence. The new code expands to display the co-insured's greeting, preferred name, best time to call, preferred contact method, preferred e-mail address, preferred phone number and an indicator of whether the co-insured in a policy owner. (PMG-929102)

Resolved Issues


  • The system was using the Product options instead of the Rider options in User Accounts > Permissions to determine whether a user could add, modify or delete riders. This issue was resolved. (PMG-772072)
  • For multi-life policies, the Menu > Communication > Correspondence command was available from the policy list on the Related Policies content link but not when the user viewed the Basic Information content link of one of those policies. The command is now available in both locations. (PMG-921817)
  • An issue with opening a linked policy from the Activity Detail dialog box was resolved. When the user posted a file to the policy record, the file was not appearing in the Document List of the associated contact. This issue was resolved. (PMG-926260)
  • When expanded, the PrimaryInsuredInfo merge code was omitting the area code of the insured's preferred phone number. This issue was resolved. (PMG-929223)

SmartCaseManager


Featured Enhancements


Informal Workflow Improvements

In Policy/Case Setup, several changes were made to the Initial Informal Workflow setup to provide more options related to formalizing child cases. Administrators can now do the following:


  • Specify a new status for parent cases once child cases are formalized.
  • Tell the system to check that formalized child cases have policy numbers.
  • Keep opportunities linked to parent cases once their child cases are formalized.

As part of this enhancement, several other changes were made to the system:


  • A new pending case status, Informal Quote Accepted, was added. This status is linked to the Proposed stage.
  • Users can now create an informal pending case from an opportunity record using the new Menu > Workflow to Enter a New Case command, available on the opportunity Detail content link. SmartOffice automatically pre-fills fields on the new case using data from the opportunity.

(PMG-925200)


Other Enhancements


  • New pending case statuses: The following statuses were added to the system (the stage linked to each appears in parentheses):

- 10A Supervision Review Pending (Proposed)


- Awaiting DocReview (Issued)


- Carrier Application Submission Pending (Proposed)


- Closed: Client Not Proceeding (Inactive)


- Informal Quote Accepted (Proposed)


- OTA Accepted by Client with 10A (Approved)


- OTA Approved by Supervision with 10A (Approved)


- OTA Declined by Supervision with 10A (Inactive)


- Pending Carrier App (Proposed)


- Reg60 10A Approved by Supervision (Approved)


- Reg60 10A Declined by Supervision (Inactive)


- Supervision Reg 60 Pre-Review (Proposed)



(PMG-925972, PMG-926215, PMG-927285, PMG-927442)


  • Better sorting of proposed class information: When the Proposed Information column is included in pending case list layouts, the column now displays the primary insured's proposed risk class first, followed by the proposed classes of other parties. (PMG-927011)

Resolved Issues


  • Adding columns from the Error Log > Import table to pending case lists was resulting in a blank list. To resolve this issue, the table was removed from the list layout customization options for pending case lists. (PMG-657014)
  • When copying a pending case, users were finding that entering a policy number and saving the new record was causing the page to go blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-920910)
  • In Policy/Case Setup, when a user navigated between the Advisor Privacy and Advisor Configuration options under Advisor Communication, both options were appearing selected (i.e., highlighted in blue) regardless of which option the user actually selected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-921906)
  • An issue with the configuration options in Setup > Policy/Case Setup > PCM Workflows > PCM Preferred Add was resolved. After selecting the Informal Application option under Application Type, users were finding that Plan Type drop-down list under Miscellaneous was displaying all plan types, regardless of which choice they selected from the Insurance Type drop-down list. Now, the choices available in the Plan Type drop-down list change depending on which insurance type is selected. (PMG-926348)
  • The system's rule against allowing duplicate pending case status history entries (i.e., entries with the same status and status date) was preventing the addition of necessary status history entries in some instances. This issue was resolved so that a duplicate status history entry is allowed if the current or previous status history entry is different. (PMG-926570)
  • Several issues with the dialog box for creating a pending case were resolved:

- For cases with a second insured, after the user specified the primary and second insureds, selecting or pointing to the name of the primary insured was displaying information about the second insured.


- When a user tried to specify product options without selecting a product, the system was correctly displaying an error message. But when the user selected a product and then tried to specify product options again, the Options hyperlink was not working.


- When a user selected a plan and product options, then changed the plan, the system was not clearing the Options field.


- For formal pending cases, when users searched for and added contacts to the Interested Parties section and then selected the Primary Insured/Annuitant or Second Insured/Annuitant hyperlink, SmartOffice was displaying the results of the interested party search instead of a search dialog box.



(PMG-926728)


  • Several issues affecting the PCM Workflows > Initial PCM Workflow section of Policy/Case Setup were resolved:

  • When the user selected the When the replacement checkbox is checked, the requirement should be hyperlink, specified a requirement from another office, and then selected the hyperlink again to search for a different requirement, the system was displaying a search dialog box with the name of the other office as the title.
  • When the user selected the When the replacement checkbox is checked, the requirement should be hyperlink and then searched for a requirement using the default criteria, the system was returning all available requirements instead of limiting them to the search criteria.
  • Spacing of options from the right edge was incorrect.

(PMG-927416)


  • On the Informal Application content link of an informal pending case, an issue with editing multiple child cases using the Menu > Switch to Edit Mode command was resolved. When a user customized the columns of the editable list and then selected the OK or Save button, SmartOffice was becoming unresponsive. (PMG-927423)
  • In some instances, after a user created a pending case in which requirements could not be automatically generated due to missing data, the Requirements content link was not displaying a message informing the user. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927711)
  • An issue with adding an advisor assignment under Setup > Policy/Case Setup > Licensing/Contracting Setup > Advisor Assignment was resolved. When the user selected an advisor from the Recently Visited section of the search dialog box, the system was displaying the advisor record. (PMG-927846)

SmartBenefits


Resolved Issues


  • Users who had no group policy types selected in User Preferences > Policies/Investments were still seeing the Search Businesses dialog box when they tried to create a group policy. This issue was resolved. These users now see a message informing them that they have no group policy types selected in User Preferences. (PMG-921718)
  • When a user renewed a group policy, the contents of the Options field were not being copied to the new policy. This issue was resolved. (PMG-922932)
  • Two issues with group plan management were resolved:

- On the Contribution Plan sub-content link of a group retirement policy, adding an entry to the Group Options List was also adding the same entry to all other group plans in the policy.


- On the Group Plans content link, when the list layout was customized to include the Carrier Name column, clicking a carrier's name was taking the user to the full-page record instead of opening the record in a dialog box. When the group policy was located in a child office in an office hierarchy, and a parent-office user with Enterprise View enabled clicked the carrier's name, SmartOffice was displaying a message stating that the record may have been deleted or the user may not have rights to access it.



(PMG-924964)


  • The group policy Group Plans list had layout issues when a user navigated to the policy starting from the carrier Group Products tab. These issues were resolved. (PMG-928479)

SmartWholesaler


Resolved Issues


  • On the distributor Detail or Firm content link, users who tried to add an entry to the Distributor Owner List without selecting a territory were encountering an "insert/update failed" error instead of a message stating that the Territory field is required. This issue was resolved. (PMG-771788)
  • Changing the page layout of the distributor Personal or Firm content link was removing the title from the Production Dashboard portlet. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927047)

SmartCommissions


Enhancements


  • Group product/policy custom fields in commission reports: In Commission-family Dynamic Reports, users can now add columns displaying custom fields for group products and group policies. To access these columns, select the Group Product Custom or Group Policy Custom table when creating or editing a report. Note that custom fields must already be set up for group products and policies in the office in order for these columns to be available for reports. (PMG-905823)

Resolved Issues


General

  • In some instances, users were encountering an "insert/update failed" error when they tried to add commission transactions to a policy's Expected Commission List. This issue was resolved. (PMG-894993)
  • An issue with Dynamic Reports in the Advisor Commission Excluding Adjustment Entries category was resolved. While viewing the list of report results, users who tried to add the Group Plans column to the list were encountering a "failed to load object" error. (PMG-924689)
  • On the advisor Commission content link, when users added entries to the bottom Advisor Payment List, the entries were not appearing in the list until the page was refreshed. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927051)

Batch Processing

  • Users were encountering an error when attempting to process a commission batch containing more than 500 carrier postings. This issue was resolved. (PMG-929180)

Carrier Posting

  • In carrier posting records, an issue that occurred when the Expected Commission List included the Product Name column was resolved. The issue occurred when the user selected a product name in that column to view the product's details. When the user then tried to add a risk class to the product's Class List, a "failed to load object" error was appearing. (PMG-598876)

SmartInvestments


Resolved Issues


Investment Accounts

  • Users who tried to export an investment subaccount transaction list were getting a blank export file. This issue was resolved. (PMG-921773)

Integrations and Data Services


Enhancements


SmartIntegrator and SmartXchange

  • Opportunity type properties exposed: Several opportunity type-related properties are now available to developers who create SmartOffice integrations:

- UserAccount.OpportunityTypeId


- OpportunityType.Active


- OpportunityType.CreatedOn


- OpportunityType.DefaultType


- OpportunityType.ModifiedOn


- OpportunityType.UserId



(PMG-927883)


  • Searchable image MIME type property: For developers creating integrations with SmartOffice, the Image.MimeType property is now searchable. (PMG-927884)
  • Policy document search via API: Developers can now fetch the letters and documents linked to a specific policy using the SmartIntegrator API. This can be accomplished by constructing a search request for Image objects in the SmartOffice database whose Link property matches the policy's object ID. (PMG-928989)

Resolved Issues


General

  • An issue with SmartOffice authentication codes that was preventing users from registering certain integrations was resolved. (PMG-911077)

DataXchange Enterprise

  • Investment account type information that was loaded into SmartOffice using DataXchange Enterprise was being truncated. This issue was resolved. (PMG-929366)

Inforce Policy Import

  • An issue with the New York Life inforce policy feed that was causing address change entries to be created in the SmartPad unnecessarily was resolved. (PMG-924967)

Investment Data Downloads

  • An issue with CUSIP and symbol matching during the processing of investment data downloads was resolved. The system was failing to insert or update securities and positions in SmartOffice when the CUSIP matched but the symbol did not. This issue was resolved. (PMG-892328)
  • An issue that was causing active Schwab investment positions to show a value of zero was resolved. (PMG-926667)
  • An issue with Orion investment data downloads was causing SmartOffice to display incorrect account open dates. This issue was resolved. (PMG-928727)

Pending Case Downloads

  • On the HO Pending Case List, a user could not start side-by-side processing using the Menu > Process command when the downloaded case contained a new underwriter and the user did not have permissions to add, delete, or modify carrier records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927739)

SmartOffice Anywhere Changes


There were no SmartOffice Anywhere changes in this release.