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Last updated: 2025-12-03


Release Notes - SmartOffice 2023 Release 2


About This Document


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


Revision History


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


July 21, 2023


  • Initial publication

August 10, 2023


  • Release Overview: Added link to release highlights video.

November 14, 2023


  • Advisors/Agencies: Corrected description for "Improved handling of terminated appointments" enhancement (PMG-928687).

Release Overview


SmartOffice 2023 Release 2 features an improved Zapier integration that allows greater flexibility in integrating SmartOffice with other apps on that platform. For agency customers, the workflow for entering a new pending case now allows users to add riders. Release 2 also resolves issues identified in SmartOffice 2023 Release 1 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.


Agency Management



Integrations and Data Services



System Requirements


Due to Microsoft's end of support for Office 2013 on April 11, 2023, SmartOffice no longer supports that version of Office. Users of Office 2013 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


Enhancements


General

  • Higher character limit for file descriptions: The maximum length of the Description field for files posted to SmartOffice was increased to 256 characters from the previous limit of 75. (PMG-929974)

Contact Management

  • Improved control of contact liability access: Administrators can now specify whether users can see the Liabilities tabs for contact, business and household records. The existing Show Liability Screens user license has been enhanced to control the visibility of those tabs. (PMG-930759)
  • Ability to show/hide KYC content links: User accounts can now be configured to either show or hide the KYC content links in contact, business and investment account records. A new KYC View license controls whether a user has access to these components of SmartOffice's Know Your Client (KYC) feature. The new license will be enabled automatically for users in offices in which KYC templates are currently applied.

(PMG-929613, PMG-930760)



SmartPad

  • Enhanced Audit Trail tracking: The SmartPad Audit Trail feature now tracks changes made to the following additional fields:

- Sub-Type (contact Personal content link)


- AlphaNum19 (policy Additional Info. content link)


- AlphaNum20 (policy Additional Info. content link)


- Date3 (policy Additional Info. content link)


- YesNo7 (policy Additional Info. content link)



(PMG-930088)



Resolved Issues


General

  • Users who have spaces in their user names were unable to sign in to the system. This issue was resolved. (PMG-930344)
  • Several improperly named columns that started with the characters "ssHead" were corrected to display proper names. (PMG-931757)

Contact Management

  • Users with Enterprise View turned on were unable to search for business records by abbreviation. This issue was resolved. (PMG-930875)
  • On the contact Personal content link, an issue was occurring when a user selected the Company hyperlink, clicked the New button, entered a name in the Business Name field, and then selected the Search for existing business record button. In the list of matching businesses, when the user viewed a business's details and then selected the OK button, the name of the business was disappearing from the list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931725)

Correspondence

  • On the contact Letters/Documents content link, changing the category of a letter in the Letter Log was causing an issue. When the user navigated to the tab corresponding to the new category, the letter was not appearing in the list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-907993)
  • When a user ran correspondence from a household list using a template containing the HHSalutation merge code, the correspondence preview was showing incorrect salutations. This issue was resolved. (PMG-930792)

Data Import/Export

  • Two issues were occurring after large list exports of Dynamic Report results were sent to the Job Queue for processing:

- When SmartOffice refreshed the report results, the Modified By column was updating to display the signed-in user's user name, and the Modified On column was updating to display the current date for the first 52 records.


- The system was posting an entry to each contact's SmartPad noting the date and time of the list export.



These issues were resolved. (PMG-930954)



Dynamic Reports

  • In the new Dynamic Report setup wizard, users who selected the Save button multiple times on the List Layout step were finding that the report preview was disappearing if a filter was applied to the data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-908208)
  • An issue that was preventing users from bringing activity custom columns into certain Dynamic Reports was resolved. (PMG-910611)
  • For Dynamic Reports that are set up to allow filter criteria changes when run, users who tried to change the filter criteria were sometimes not seeing the OK and Cancel buttons and therefore could not apply their changes. This issue was resolved.  (PMG-929773)
  • Users who created or modified Dynamic Reports belonging to the Activities for Advisors report category did not have access to the ActivityCustom table and its columns. This issue was resolved.  (PMG-930815)
  • A "failed to load object" error that child-office users were encountering when they ran certain System-office activity reports was resolved. The error was occurring when the report was grouped by participant. (PMG-931106)

Home Page

  • In some instances, home page tabs shared from a System office were appearing in child offices without an "x" button, preventing users from closing those tabs. This issue was resolved. (PMG-930917)
  • An "invalid chart definition" error was occurring in some instances when a user tried to view a Dynamic Report chart in a dashboard. This issue was resolved. (PMG-932066)

Households

  •  When a user selected the Create New Household command on the Contact List (under Menu > Advanced Options), the user could not complete the process because the Save button in the New Household dialog box was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931393)

Sets

  • An issue that occurred after a user created a set filter was resolved. When the filter was based on the Birth Date column, the date range was set to Past Month and the Ignore year option was enabled, the new filter was displaying the string "strPrevMonthIgnoreYear" in the Filter Criteria list. (PMG-932020)

SmartCalendar


Resolved Issues


  • During activity cancellation, selecting the option to reschedule was closing the dialog box and not displaying any additional prompts. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931444)
  • While viewing other users' calendars, users were able to view and modify the details of those users' activities despite not having the appropriate proxy relationship or Super User status. This issue was resolved. (PMG-932549)

SmartOpportunities


Enhancements


  • Opportunity enhancement for linked pending cases: Users can now view the pending case/policy linked to an opportunity directly from the SmartOffice home page. From any home page tab that contains a list of opportunities, open an opportunity record, and then select Menu > Go to Linked Pending Case/Policy. (PMG-930203)

Resolved Issues


  • In some instances, changing the current stage on the opportunity Detail content link was changing the stage date to a future date. As a result, users were seeing a "Future date not allowed" error when they tried to save any changes to the opportunity. This issue was resolved. (PMG-926746)
  • Users who did not have the Opportunity Setup Administrator license were able to modify the name of a sales process from the Default Opportunity Process field under User Preferences > Basic Info. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931421)

SmartLeads


Resolved Issues


  • When a lead was linked to a spouse, accepting the lead was not removing it from the Unaccepted Leads List. This issue was resolved. (PMG-932002)

SmartEvents


Resolved Issues


  • After updating the status of an event invitee to Contact Later and creating an activity, users were finding that selecting the Save button in the Activity Detail dialog box was not closing the dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-904151)

Advisors/Agencies


Enhancements


General

  • Ability to unlink cases from presales: A new command enables users to unlink a pending case/policy from a presale activity. While viewing a presale activity's Detail content link, select Menu > Unlink Pending Case/Policy. (PMG-929362)
  • Improved agency search: When a user performs an agency search from the Search box and enters at least three characters, SmartOffice now returns search results based on both agency name and abbreviation. Previously, the abbreviation was not considered in agency searches from the Search box, even though it was considered for business searches. (PMG-929926)
  • Improved case search for linking presale records: When users try to link a presale activity to an existing pending case, the system now populates the Plan Type and Policy Type fields in the Search Pending Cases dialog box automatically based on the information in the presale record. If that information is not present in the presale record, those search fields are set to All by default. This enhancement also resolves an issue in which selecting All for those search fields was not returning all cases linked to the presale's primary insured. (PMG-931056)
  • Improved handling of terminated appointments: For offices that use a data provider like NIPR to update advisor appointment data electronically, the following changes were made to appointment records that are updated with a status of Electronic Request - Termination:

- The Termination Reason drop-down list now displays only those options applicable to the specified state. If the All States or Multiple States option is selected for the appointment, all applicable reasons are displayed.


- A new License Class Code drop-down list now appears, with options that are specific to the selected state. If the All States or Multiple States option is selected for the appointment, no license class codes are displayed.


(PMG-928687, PMG-930751)



Resolved Issues


General

  • Two issues on the presale activity/proposal Detail content link were resolved:

- Under Additional Details, when a user selected the linked case record to view its details, the dialog box that opened was not displaying the insurance type in the title.


- After modifying multiple fields without saving those changes, users who then selected Menu > Link Presale Activity/Proposal to Existing Pending Case were encountering duplicate save warnings.



(PMG-929143)



  • On the advisor/agency Presale Activity/Proposals tab, an issue that non-Super Users were encountering when they created quick quote and requirement records was resolved. The issue occurred after these users entered the details of the new record and then selected the Save & New button. When users then filled in all fields except for Primary Insured and selected the Save & Close button, they were seeing the error "The requested record or page cannot be displayed."  (PMG-930077)
  • When using the Menu > Link Presale Activity/Proposal to Existing Pending Case command, users had access to buttons for creating a pending case. These buttons were removed. (PMG-930091)
  • In some instances, non-Super Users who tried to access the advisor Pending Cases tab were seeing the message "The requested record or page cannot be displayed." This issue was resolved. (PMG-930285)
  • An issue with the workflow for linking a presale activity to an existing pending case was resolved. When the pending case search returned only one result, the system was not showing the pending case list. (PMG-930481)
  • Several issues affecting the presale activity Detail content link were resolved:

  • Under Results, when values were entered in the Insurance Type and Plan Type fields, changing the Insurance Type and then saving the record was changing the Plan Type field value to a number. In addition, changing the Insurance Type repeatedly was creating duplicate entries in the Plan Type drop-down list.
  • When the presale activity was linked to a pending case with an insurance type and plan type different from those specified in the presale record, the system was displaying the pending case Underwriting content link with the wrong insurance type in the title. In addition, once the case was linked, selecting the Linked Case link was displaying the case with the wrong insurance type in the title.
  • In newly created presale activities, the system was clearing the Presale Insured field when the user linked an opportunity to the presale record by typing the opportunity name and then saving the record.
  • When the presale insured was a business and the insurance type was Group Cancer, Group Accident or Group Hospital, users who tried to convert the presale record to a pending case were seeing the dialog box for creating a pending case instead of a group policy. In addition, the Plan Type field value was changing to a number.

(PMG-931442)


Insurance Products and Carriers


Resolved Issues


  • In product records, several page and list layout issues on the Product Settings content link were resolved. (PMG-931332)

SmartPolicies


Enhancements


  • Unspecified role for interested parties: For entries in the policy/pending case Policy Relationship List, a new Unspecified choice is available in the Role drop-down list. (PMG-931423)

Resolved Issues


  • After copying an individual or group policy, users who tried to view or create policy notes for the new policy record were not seeing the notes dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-762448)
  • In some instances, policy Dynamic Reports that were configured for automatic e-mailing were displaying duplicate policy records in the report attachment. This issue was resolved. (PMG-927050)
  • On the policy Benefits content link for annuities, the Pen Phase End date field was too narrow to display the full date. This issue was resolved. (PMG-930646)

SmartCaseManager


Featured Enhancements


Ability to Add Riders During Case Creation

A new Policy Riders button at the bottom of the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box enables users to add riders as part of the case creation workflow. Selecting the button displays a section for entering details for up to four riders.


(PMG-930821)


Other Enhancements


  • Rider and total annualized premium data in premium history: The premium history for pending cases has been enhanced to display rider annualized premium and total annualized premium information. On the pending case Detail content link, select the Show History button in the Current Premium Information section to view the case's submitted and issued premium information, and then look for the new Rider(s) Annualized Premium and Total Annualized Premium - Rider and Base sections.

(PMG-892606)


  • New display option for Pending Case List: The system can now be configured so that, when users view the Pending Case List with the Underwriting All option selected from the Policy Stage drop-down list at the top, the list includes cases that are in the Proposed stage. To enable this configuration, go to Setup > Policy/Case Setup > PCM Workflows > Initial PCM Workflow and select the new Show Proposed Stage along with Underwriting All option.

(PMG-924030)


  • Increased character limit for rider name: On the pending case Benefits content link, Rider List entries now accept up to 256 characters in Rider Name field. The previous maximum was 128. (PMG-931110)
  • Policy date in pending case record: Users can now view the date a policy went inforce from the associated pending case record. A new Policy Date field is now available on the pending case Detail content link under the Unique Case ID field in the Basic Policy Information section.

(PMG-931249)



Resolved Issues


  • In some instances, users who have browser-based file posting enabled could not post documents to pending case records. Users were encountering this issue after navigating to the pending case using the View Policy or View Pending Case link on an activity record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-930382)
  • Two issues with creating underwriting guidelines were resolved:

- On the Underwriting Requirements screen for product guidelines, clicking the Add Req. button was having no effect when the user had not selected a cell. Because this button works only after the user selects a cell, the system now shows the button as being unavailable until the user does so.


- On the Underwriting Requirements screen for carrier guidelines, users who tried to create a requirement after performing a requirement search were finding that the requirement was not being added.



(PMG-931693)


  • In a multi-life pending case, after navigating to the Requirements content link of a related policy, users were unable to select any choice from the Requirement Type drop-down list other than Underwriting Requirements. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931696)
  • When a pending case was updated, an issue was preventing an activity from being created for the case manager. This issue was resolved. (PMG-932605)

SmartBenefits


Resolved Issues


  • On the group policy Detail content link, the # of Members field was not updating to reflect new group members unless the user selected the # of Members link. This issue was resolved. (PMG-901295)
  • When adding new product options for a group insurance product, users were finding that the layout of the Product Options dialog box was becoming distorted. This issue was resolved. (PMG-922937)
  • When a custom page layout was applied to group policies, renewing a group policy was not transferring the primary advisor from the original policy record to the new one. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931333)
  • Issues with group policy Dynamic Reports in the Group Plans and Members category were resolved. Users encountered these issues when a report's first column was Plan Name (Group Plan table) and the report was sorted by holding type. When users viewed a plan from the report, the following was occurring:

- On the Members content link of all plans, users could not add plan members using the New 'Group Plan Members' Record command. In addition, selecting the Menu > New 'Group Plan Policy' Record command on that content link was prompting the user to choose a product first.


- On the Contribution Plan content link of retirement plans, selecting the New 'Group Plan Options' Record command on the Group Options List was producing an "insert/update failed" error.


- On the Members content link of travel plans, a layout issue affecting the height of the Group Members List was preventing users from viewing entries in that list.


- On the Definition content link of Section 125 plans, a layout issue affecting the height of the Expenses List was preventing users from viewing entries in that list.



(PMG-926774)



SmartCommissions


Enhancements


General

  • New hierarchy columns for advisor commission reports: When creating or modifying Advisor Commission-category Dynamic Reports, users now have access to two columns from the Comm. Split Hierarchy table: Hierarchy Name and Remarks. (PMG-929451)

Speed Receipts

  • Status filter for Speed Receipt List: A Status drop-down list was added to the top of the Speed Receipt List, enabling users to quickly narrow down the list of speed receipts displayed by status.

(PMG-922150)



Resolved Issues


General

  • Policies in which the primary advisor and additional writing advisor were the same person were causing several commission-related issues:

- When no commissions were generated for the additional writing advisor, the system was still not allowing users to delete that advisor from the Policy Advisor List.


- The system was not taking the split percentage into account when calculating commissions for the additional writing advisor.


- In some instances, the system was allowing users to delete advisor records even when commission records had been generated for them.



These issues were resolved. (PMG-931706)



Speed Receipts

  • An issue that was causing corruption of speed receipts was resolved. When a speed receipt was linked to a carrier posting that was later deleted, any unlinked speed receipt transactions were retaining their Validated and Linked status and could not be reset. These transactions can now be reset by selecting the Options button in the speed receipt and choosing the Reset Selected Transactions command. (PMG-930355)

SmartInvestments


Enhancements


Investment Securities

  • Security price factor enhancement: On the investment security Detail content link, the Price Factor field can now hold values that extend to six decimal places. The previous limit was two decimal places. (PMG-931194)

Resolved Issues


Investment Securities

  • Users who tried to access subaccount records for variable annuity securities were encountering the error "Your action cannot be completed." This issue was resolved. (PMG-930961)

Performance Calculations

  • On the household Performance content link, users who tried to add a record to the Index list were encountering an error stating that the requested record or page could not be displayed. This issue was resolved. (PMG-931335)

Integrations and Data Services


Featured Enhancements


Improved Zapier Integration

To expand SmartOffice users' ability to create no-code integrations, the SmartOffice app on Zapier now supports the following new actions:


  • Add Activity and Delete Activity: These actions can be used to integrate with calendar apps like Calendly.
  • Add Lead: Bring sales leads into SmartOffice from Facebook Leads Ads, LinkedIn Ads and similar apps. This enhancement includes the new option to add leads to a SmartOffice campaign.
  • Add Document: This action enables you to copy a document uploaded into another app like PandaDoc into SmartOffice.

For more information about the Zoom integration, refer to our user guide.


Other Enhancements


Inforce Policy Import

  • Improved processing of interested parties in DTCC downloads: SmartOffice now performs record matching to ensure that all interested parties in DTCC inforce policy downloads are updated properly in SmartOffice policy records. The previous logic was resulting in instances of certain interested parties not being updated. (PMG-901902)
  • Annuity processing improvement for DTCC imports: When processing annuity products in DTCC data downloads, SmartOffice now automatically enables the Variable Product option on the product Detail content link. This ensures that annuity subaccounts can be tracked in SmartOffice. (PMG-930022)
  • Support for longer policy numbers for AgencyWorks import: Inforce policy import from AgencyWorks into SmartOffice now supports policy numbers containing up to 32 characters (previously, the maximum was 16). (PMG-932332)

Investment Data Downloads

  • Improved account processing: The logic for processing downloaded investment account data was enhanced. Now, when SmartOffice finds no match for the contact based on tax ID, the system does not process the account. Instead, it leaves the account unlinked and creates an appropriate log message. If the tax ID is updated in the data feed or in SmartOffice and a match is made later, SmartOffice links the account to the contact. (PMG-930962)

Pending Case Downloads

  • Option to not process HO underwriter data: Administrators can now configure pending case downloads so that HO underwriter data in the feed is not processed in SmartOffice. A new Do not process HO Underwriter option is available in Setup > Policy/Case Setup > DataXchange Setup > DDR Setup. When this option is enabled, SmartOffice will not update the Underwriter field on the pending case Detail content link or the Underwriter List on the carrier HO Reps/Underwriters content link. (PMG-930820)

Resolved Issues


Pending Case Downloads

  • Two pending case download issues were resolved:

- When a downloaded case contained no preferred address, SmartOffice was not processing any address data. Now, the system populates address data in the HO pending case record regardless of whether a preferred address is present in the download.


- When processed through Direct Download and Replace, critical illness and disability cases could not be searched separately.



(PMG-929410)



SmartOffice Anywhere Changes


Enhancements


  • Campaign name in opportunity detail: In the SmartOffice Anywhere mobile app, the opportunity detail screen now displays the name of the linked marketing campaign.

(PMG-896886)