Release Notes - SmartOffice Pro Canadian Edition 11.1.6

About This Document

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

Revision History

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

April 7, 2020

• Initial publication.

Enhancement Highlights

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

Core System

• Browser-based Excel export

• Mobile app option for two-step authentication

• Enhanced admin control over two-step authentication

• Side menu search

• Page layout customization for households

• Easier field removal in custom page layouts

• Improved control over applying page layouts to all users

• Template management features in the Correspondence Wizard

• Multiple selection using shift-click

• Limited broadcast alerts

• Improved photo/office logo upload tool

• Ability to turn off prompt to add record post-search

• Option to designate imported addresses and phone numbers as primary

• Column displaying all mobile numbers

• Ability to send notes as alerts to user groups

• Admin ability to edit/delete "Only Modifiable by Me" records

• SmartPad auto-save

• "Do not market" communication privacy option

Agency Management

• Advisor record alert after case creation

• Improved attachment support for presale correspondence

• New commands for adding contracts and rates

• Presale Status report

• Presale advisor license/appointment check

• Ability to view agency key relations' policies

• Policy Inception Date field

• Option to hide products and riders

• Credit card details in APS requirements

• Carrier-level projection validity date ranges

• Negative commission rates

• Better tracking of rate creation/modification

• Policy creation from Speed Receipts

• Rate merge

• Policy transaction portlets for policy page layouts

• Ability to choose different sender address for policy/pending case correspondence

SmartOffice Anywhere

• Revamped calendar and tasks screens

• Redesigned Settings screen

• Alert Center redesign for mobile

• Two-step authentication code generator

• Support for biometric authentication

System Requirements

SmartOffice has dropped support for Windows 7 to coincide with Microsoft's end of support for that product. Ebix recommends that user upgrade to a later version of SmartOffice.

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

Browser-Based Excel Export

Users can now export data from SmartOffice in Excel (XLS) format without the Microsoft Plug-in for SmartOffice. The process is now completely browser-based, making Excel exports available to SmartOffice users who cannot (or prefer not to) install the plug-in.

In addition, when a user exports a list containing more than 1,500 rows, SmartOffice processes the request in the background to minimize any impact on system performance. When the export file is ready to download, the user receives a notification through the Alert Center. Note:

• Customers who prefer the plug-in based Excel export method can switch back by navigating to the office Detail content link (Setup > Office Settings) and selecting Plug-in in the Export Method section.

• Enterprise customers can change the 1,500-row limit in the server config.xml file by editing the value of the element under .

For more information, see Printing or Exporting a List. (PMG-751030, PMG-863799, PMG-879153)

Mobile App Option for Two-Step Authentication

Users who have two-step authentication enabled in SmartOffice Pro can now choose to generate one-time codes using the SmartOffice Anywhere mobile app.

To get started, install the latest version of the app for your Android or Apple iOS device and sign in to the app (this step is important; make sure the app is working on your device before you proceed).

Next, in SmartOffice Pro, go to User Preferences > 2-Step Authentication and select the Mobile App option for receiving codes.

The next time you sign in to SmartOffice Pro and see the prompt requesting a one-time code, open the SmartOffice Anywhere app to generate a code (to learn how, see Two-Step Authentication Code Generator in the SmartOffice Anywhere Changes section).

Also, as part of this enhancement, the Both option for receiving one-time codes through e-mail and text was renamed E-mail & Text Message for improved clarity. (PMG-836774)

Enhanced Admin Control Over Two-Step Authentication

To help administrators better enforce security practices, SmartOffice now requires a user to have the Administrator: User Rights & Creation/Licenses/Groups user right to enable or disable two-step authentication for a user account. Users without this right can still access their two-step authentication preferences to specify how long they want SmartOffice to remember their last successful verification, but they can no longer turn the feature on or off themselves.

Also as part of this enhancement, the choices in the Two-Step Authentication drop-down list indicating the state of two-step authentication for a user's account were renamed Active and Inactive.

(PMG-858857)

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, PMG-834124)

Page Layout Customization for Households

Users can now customize the layout of household records to display the data they want. To get started, navigate to the Detail content link of a household record, and then select Menu > Page Layouts. For more information, see Page Layout Customization. (PMG-735844, PMG-873336)

Easier Field Removal in Custom Page Layouts

To quickly remove individual fields from a custom page layout, users can now click the "x" button on the field in the template editor. Previously, the only way to remove a field was to drag it to the field list.

(PMG-859453)

Improved Control Over Applying Page Layouts to All Users

When an administrator user assigns a custom page layout to all users in an office, the layout now applies even when those users do not have page layout customization rights themselves. Previously, users without page layout customization rights were getting the default page layout. (PMG-841040)

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)

Multiple Selection Using Shift-Click

Shift-clicking has been implemented in lists to make selecting multiple records easier. After selecting one record, hold down the SHIFT key and click another record further down the list to automatically select all of the records in between. (PMG-830442)

Limited Broadcast Alerts

Users who have the Alerts user right can now send broadcast alerts to limited lists of recipients filtered by office/user. For Enterprise View users, this includes users in child offices. For example, you could send a broadcast alert about employee benefits to all Staff-type users in a particular office or in all offices in a hierarchy.

To get started, create a Dynamic Report using the new Limited Broadcast Alert report category (under the Other report family). Learn more about setting up Dynamic Reports.

In the report setup, define your office and/or user filters. Run the report to generate your recipient list, and then select Menu > Send Alert to compose and send your message. (PMG-551662)

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)

Ability to Turn Off Prompt to Add Record Post-Search

Previously, when a user searched for a record that did not exist in SmartOffice, the system always asked whether the user wanted to create the record. Users can now turn off this prompt. In User Preferences > Basic Info, select Do not prompt to add record after search under Default Settings.

Once this preference is enabled, record searches with no results will just display an empty list. (PMG-618758)

Option to Designate Imported Addresses and Phone Numbers as Primary

For certain import setups in the Data Import Wizard, users can now specify that imported addresses and phone numbers should be marked as "primary" in SmartOffice. The new option is available in the Select File to Upload section of the initial import settings dialog box.

This option is available for advisor, candidate, contact, employee census and event invitee import setups. (PMG-835890)

Column Displaying All Mobile Numbers

On many lists throughout the system (e.g., contact, business, household, advisor, agency), users with the appropriate rights can now add a new column labeled All Mobile Phones. This column displays all mobile numbers, with the preferred phone number, if any, appearing in bold.

(PMG-838767)

Ability to Send Notes as Alerts to User Groups

In the SmartPad and other areas of the system, the option to send a note as an alert and e-mail to other users was enhanced.

Now, the list of available recipients that opens when users select this option includes user groups in addition to individual users.

(PMG-851850)

Admin Ability to Edit/Delete "Only Modifiable by Me" Records

Users with the Administrator: User Rights & Creation/Licenses/Groups user right can now modify and delete records that other users in the office have marked as "Only modifiable by me," including sets, Dynamic Reports, correspondence templates and page layout templates. This enhancement gives high-level administrator users greater power to edit or remove records that have become outdated or are no longer needed. (PMG-858225)

SmartPad Auto-Save

SmartOffice can now be configured to automatically save SmartPad entries in the background as users write them. This enhancement helps to prevent situations in which a user's session expires before he/she saves a SmartPad entry, causing the loss of any unsaved text. An administrator can enable this feature from the office SmartPad/New Contact/E-mail Posting content link by entering a value (in minutes) for the auto-save interval.

(PMG-867025)

"Do Not Market" Communication Privacy Option

Users can now quickly select or clear communication privacy options for contact and other records. In contact records, go to the Add'l Personal content link and select or clear the new Do not Market option under Communication Privacy.

Selecting this option automatically selects all options in that section. The same option is available on the advisor Add'l Personal content link, as well as the business and agency Add'l Detail content links. (PMG-876133)

Other Enhancements

General

• Date-based list grouping by year: When creating a custom sort for a list, users who opt to use a date column for list grouping can now choose to group based on the year. Previously, the only date grouping options available were Month, Week and Day.

(PMG-587555)

• 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)

• Improved enterprise-level custom field creation: Enterprise customers now have more consistent control over creating custom field choices for the entire enterprise. While signed in to the System office, an administrator who clicks the Customize Choice button for any customizable field will now see the New System button, which allows the administrator to create a custom choice that will be visible in all offices. Previously, the New System button was available for only certain customizable fields. (PMG-806277)

• 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. Users with this right can also access the Office Access Log content link, as well as the SmartOffice Error Log, SmartIntegrator Error Log and Server Service Log under Utilities in the side menu. (PMG-821456, PMG-864397)

• Column displaying outgoing e-mail settings: Enterprise administrators now have a convenient way to view the outgoing e-mail settings of all of their offices. From the System office, open the Office List (Setup > Office Settings) and customize the list layout to add the Send Options - Form Letters column. (PMG-825048)

• Enhanced progress indicators: Progress indicators in many areas of SmartOffice have been improved to include an Abort button that users can click to stop the current request from being processed. (PMG-828935)

• Date range improvements: In areas of the system where users can select predefined date ranges, the following changes were made:

- All Events in Future was renamed All Days in Future + Today to clarify its meaning.

- All Events in Past was renamed All Days in Past to clarify its meaning.

- A new date range called All Days in Future was added.

(PMG-853156; PMG-853157)

• Custom page template command enhancements: In the side menu, the Setup > Custom Template Creation command was renamed Custom Template to reflect the fact that it is used for general page layout template management. In addition, when users select this command, the Search Custom Template dialog box that opens now contains a New button for creating a page template immediately. (PMG-859475, PMG-859477)

• Show My Favorites in page layout editor: In the page layout editor, users can now select the new Show My Favorites option at the top to limit the choices in the Template drop-down list to their favorite layouts.

(PMG-859530)

• Permissions column in user lists and reports: When viewing a list of user accounts, administrators can now see data about the permissions assigned to each user by adding the new User Permissions column to the list layout. The column is also available for Dynamic Reports in the Admin-User Proxy and Office/User Access Log categories (Other report family). (PMG-883478)

Alert Center

• Enhanced e-mail alerts for new activities: Users who opt to receive new-activity alerts by e-mail outside of SmartOffice now receive additional activity details. The e-mail alert now includes the activity description as well as the contact's primary residence and business phone numbers. (PMG-835340)

• Improved Alert Center column layout: The Action column in the Alert Center is now visible by default. This enhancement makes it easier for users to access the actions available for each alert they receive. (PMG-880030)

Contact Management

• More spouse information for contact lists: Users can now view spouse title (Mr., Mrs., etc.), spouse address and spouse e-mail address information on contact lists. To do so, add the Spouse Title, Spouse Preferred Address and Spouse Preferred E-mail columns from the Personal table to these lists. (PMG-543046, 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)

• Modified by/on columns in Document List: Users can now more easily see when a document posted to a contact record was last modified and by whom. On the contact Letters/Documents content link, the Modified By and Modified On columns are now available for addition to the Document List. Users with the appropriate user rights can modify the list layout to add these new columns. (PMG-865917)

• Custom data columns in business hierarchy list: While viewing a business's key relations, users can now add columns for contact custom fields. To do so, go to the business Key Relations content link and customize the list layout of the Business Hierarchy section to add columns from the Contact Custom table. (PMG-883020)

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)

Data Import/Export

• Improved advisor/agency import matching: The Data Import Wizard was enhanced to enable matching of imported advisor/agency records with existing SmartOffice records based on advisor/agency ID. (PMG-792538)

• Configurable SmartPad export limit: Enterprise customers can now specify the maximum number of records that can be exported at one time from the SmartPad (previously, there was a hard-coded limit of 300 records). In the server config.xml file, change the value of the element under the node to indicate the record limit. To allow an unlimited number of records to be exported, leave the value of blank. This setting applies to all offices on a server. (PMG-852063)

Dynamic Reports

• Dates in e-mail Dynamic Reports: Dynamic Reports that are automatically sent to recipients by e-mail now include the current date in the header. (PMG-791741)

• 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)

• New contact columns for phone number reports: In Phone Numbers-category Dynamic Reports, users can now add columns from the following contact tables: Personal, Household, Preferred Address, Primary Residence Address, Contact Benefit, Created By, Modified By and Primary Advisor. (PMG-823768)

SmartPad

• Ability to hide Changes tab in SmartPad: Enterprise customers can now configure their SmartOffice servers to hide the SmartPad's Changes tab, which is normally visible when the Audit Trail feature is enabled for an office. This enhancement enables an organization to continue tracking changes to records for audit purposes without showing that information to users. To hide the Changes tab, set the value of the element in the server config.xml file to true. (PMG-881696)

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)

• An issue that was preventing the CTRL+P keyboard shortcut from printing SmartOffice pages properly was resolved. (PMG-720741)

• Issues with the arrangement of buttons in SmartOffice's top bar that occurred in small browser windows were resolved. (PMG-758446)

• On a list of business records, users who tried to apply a filter on the Sub-Type column or mass modify the Sub-Type field were finding that the sub-type choices available for selection were incorrect. This issue was resolved. (PMG-761551)

• 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 or, in some instances, when a user account was created. This issue was resolved. (PMG-786190)

• In the browser-based file posting dialog box, the choices in the Keyword and Category drop-down lists were not properly alphabetized. This issue was resolved. (PMG-786650)

• 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)

• When a user created a page layout template and marked it as Only Modifiable by Me, other users who viewed the template layout were seeing Save and Save & Apply buttons at the bottom. To accurately reflect what the user can do with such templates, the system now displays only an Apply button. (PMG-809833)

• When a user tried to edit the layout of a page that had the default layout, the portlets and fields displayed in the layout editor were different from those on the page itself. This issue was resolved. (PMG-810072)

• While typing characters into the Search box, users who selected one of SmartOffice's suggested matches from the dynamic menu using the keyboard were finding that the record was not opening. This issue was resolved. (PMG-810604)

• 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 Postal Code field and the user pressed the TAB key, the cursor was moving to the Country field instead of the postal code lookup button. The cursor now moves to the button instead, and the user can press the space bar to open the list of postal codes. (PMG-821889)

• Enterprise customers 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)

• Users who tried to delete a user group from the user account User Groups content link were seeing a blank dialog box instead of a confirmation message. This issue was resolved. (PMG-834280)

• When two or more customized column labels were identical, only one of the columns was available for selection when users customized list layouts. This issue was resolved. (PMG-836188)

• A cross-site scripting vulnerability involving field input was resolved. (PMG-836592)

• When a user exported a list in Excel (.xls) format, the resulting file was not reflecting any custom sort options the user had applied. This issue was resolved. (PMG-838548)

• An issue that was preventing Canadian users from setting up SMS text notifications from SmartOffice was resolved. In User Preferences > Basic Info, the list of available mobile service providers was displaying U.S. carriers only. (PMG-839897)

• SmartOffice Pro was displaying a session timeout message to users even when the office's security settings specified a longer timeout interval. This issue was resolved. (PMG-843744)

• Users who created a set containing a filter were finding that they could not manually validate the set. This issue was resolved. (PMG-844597)

• The Run Dynamic Reports with Excel Templates user right was available for selection even when the Data Export user right was not enabled. This issue was resolved. (PMG-845728)

• Enterprise View users in Impersonate Mode were encountering an error when they tried to customize the page layout of an agency record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-846006)

• In Office Settings and User Accounts, layout issues that were causing certain content links to disappear off the edge of the browser window were resolved. (PMG-846636)

• When Protect Communication History was enabled for the office, archiving a contact was not removing activities linked to that contact from the calendar. This issue was resolved. As part of this solution, when an archived contact is restored, the linked activities are also added back to the calendar. (PMG-847186)

• On the user account Detail content link, the Menu > Set Automatic Switch User Login command was visible to customers who were not in a single sign-on environment or part of an office hierarchy. This command applies only to customers who fall into those categories and was removed for all other customers. (PMG-849218)

• In grouped lists using the Tree View layout, users were encountering issues with overlapping column data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-850926)

• In some instances, the system was not displaying a message stating that the spelling checker had finished checking text. This issue was resolved. (PMG-850928)

• An unexpected session timeout that was occurring when users opened SmartOffice Pro in multiple browser tabs was resolved. (PMG-851088)

• An issue that was causing an office's Error Log to display entries from other offices' logs was resolved. (PMG-852181)

• Multiple issues with page layout customization were resolved:

- In portlets containing two columns of fields, removing a field from the left column was causing the adjacent field in the right column to shift over and lose its label.

- For many record types, users were able to add the same field to a custom page layout more than once. This was occurring because these fields were appearing in column searches even after they had already been added to the layout. Now, columns that are already part of the layout no longer appear in column search results.

- When a user added an individual field to a portlet in a custom page layout, the field was appearing at the bottom of the portlet instead of the location where the user had dragged it.

- When a warning or informational message appeared at the top of the page layout editor, the message was scrolling along with the rest of the page. These messages now remain visible while the rest of the page scrolls.

- When users clicked the Reset to Default button on the page layout editor, the confirmation dialog box's appearance was inconsistent with that of other dialog boxes in SmartOffice.

- Selecting the Add to My Favorites option while editing a custom page layout template was not adding the template to the user's favorites in some instances.

- The first portlet that the user dragged into the layout was not appearing in the upper-left corner of the layout.

- When a user dragged fields into a portlet, the fields were always appearing on the left side of the portlet, regardless of where the user had dragged them.

- Users were unable to drag a field to the bottom of a portlet.

- Moving a portlet below another portlet was causing other portlets to change position unexpectedly.

- Users were unable to add fields to a custom portlet or drag fields into the custom portlet from another portlet.

- When the Primary Advisor field was added to a custom portlet, the field label was appearing as First Name, Last Name in the page layout.

- In some instances, adding all of the fields from the Personal Information portlet to a custom portlet was resulting in an error.

- In some page layouts, users who changed the height of the Remarks portlet in the page layout editor were finding that the change was not being reflected in the records themselves.

- Users were unable to move portlets from the bottom of the layout to the top when a scroll bar was present on the page.

- After changing a page layout from two columns to three columns, users could not move the first two portlets to the third column.

- Users were unable to drag predefined portlets into certain blank areas in page layouts.

- When a user dragged a predefined portlet into a page layout, the portlet's fields were not appearing until the user saved the layout.

- Users were unable to drag portlets to the last column in a multi-column custom page layout.

- Users could not drag a portlet between two horizontally stacked list portlets.

- Users could not drag a portlet below a full-width portlet.

- Users could not increase the width of a half-width list portlet to full width unless they first moved the portlet.

- When a custom page layout contained a custom field, subsequent changes to the field label were not being reflected in the page layout.

- After changing a custom page layout from a two-column layout to a three-column layout, users were unable to move portlets containing custom fields to the new column.

- In some instances, changes made to the Primary Advisor field on a custom page layout were not being recorded properly in the SmartPad.

- When a custom page layout containing Dynamic Report portlets was applied to a record, opening the layout template again was removing those portlets.

- Dragging a custom portlet under a full-width portlet was creating duplicates of the custom portlet when the template was saved.

- When a contact custom page layout included a custom field with a label containing a special character, applying the layout was producing an error.

- In household custom page layouts, users who entered data in household custom fields were unable to save their changes.

- Moving the Current Stage field from the Opportunity Detail portlet to another portlet was producing an error when the layout was saved.

- In advisor custom page layouts, users could not make changes to the Case Manager field when that field was part of a custom portlet.

(PMG-853045, PMG-858816, PMG-859442, PMG-859457, PMG-859463, PMG-859467, PMG-859471, PMG-859473, PMG-859588, PMG-859590, PMG-859592, 859594, PMG-859596, PMG-859599, PMG-859601, PMG-878621, PMG-880387, PMG-881793, PMG-881794, PMG-881987, PMG-882055, PMG-882858, PMG-882647)

• An issue that was preventing users from merging records was resolved. (PMG-853327)

• In Office Settings, administrators who tried to see which users were assigned a particular license were seeing a blank dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-857209)

• Under User Preferences > Basic Info, users who chose the Day option from the Default location at sign-in (SOPRO) drop-down list were encountering an error when they signed in. This issue was resolved. (PMG-864531)

• In User Preferences, an issue with the E-mail Posting Count section on the Basic Info content link was resolved. When 50 or more posting records existed, this section was expanding into the next column and causing layout issues. (PMG-865317)

• On the Installations page (Setup > Installations), the Fiduciary Report Plug-In hyperlink was removed because that utility is no longer supported. (PMG-865557)

• In some instances, when the system required a user to create a new password after sign-in, SmartOffice was displaying an error after the user entered the new password. This issue was resolved. (PMG-866400)

• Users were seeing an error in the progress bar while merging records with Enterprise View turned on. This issue was resolved. (PMG-868146)

• Several buttons, including the Menu button, were not registering users' clicks in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-871799)

• In Office Settings, an issue with e-mail SMTP settings was resolved. The issue occurred when SmartOffice could not connect to the specified server and then tried to connect to the default SMTP server specified in the SmartOffice server configuration. Because not all of the original SMTP settings were reset, SmartOffice could not connect using the fallback server settings, either. This issue was resolved. (PMG-872884)

• Internet Explorer users who changed user account permissions were finding that the system was not saving their changes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875793)

• In lists displaying three or more levels of grouping, charts were displaying incorrect data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875939)

• When applying a user account template during user account creation, administrators were encountering a "not enough tier licenses" error. The error was occurring in single sign-on (SSO) configurations. This issue was resolved. (PMG-878871)

• In some instances, the division and multiplication features in calculated columns were not producing correct results. This issue was resolved. (PMG-881389)

• Several issues affecting Internet Explorer users were resolved:

- The Search and Add New menus were not displaying any choices.

- The Sign In and About hyperlinks were visible even after users signed in.

- The Advanced Search hyperlink next to the Search box was not working.

(PMG-883211)

• An issue that was preventing corporate key information from displaying on the Basic Info content link in User Preferences was resolved.

Alert Center

• An error that some users were encountering when they tried to reply to alerts was resolved. (PMG-832182)

• In the Alert Center, an error that was occurring when users tried to reply to broadcast alerts was resolved. (PMG-848133)

• In the Alert Center, several issues with the Navigate To button in the Action column were resolved:

- When the Regarding column was removed from the list layout, the Navigate To button was not working.

- When the Regarding column was positioned as the first column, clicking the Navigate To button was opening the Alert Details dialog box.

- Clicking the Navigate To button was inconsistent in terms of the browser tab/window that was opening.

(PMG-862476)

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)

• When viewing a business record with a long business name, users were encountering alignment issues in the user interface. This issue was resolved. (PMG-730103)

• 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)

• An issue with linking an opportunity while creating a contact was resolved. Any documents posted to the contact later were not appearing on the contact's Letters/Documents content link unless the user signed out of SmartOffice and then signed back in. (PMG-803215)

• 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)

• On the contact Personal content link, users who entered a value in the Occupation field and saved their changes were being prompted to save their changes again when they tried to navigate away from the page. This issue was resolved. (PMG-810071)

• 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)

• An issue with specifying a set during an advanced contact search was resolved. The issue occurred when a user selected the Mass User Assignment command with the Mass Assign All Contacts option. SmartOffice was displaying a message incorrectly suggesting that the operation would apply only to the contacts listed, even though the Mass Assign All Contacts option actually applies to all contacts that the user is currently assigned to. This message was corrected. (PMG-829414)

• 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)

• An issue that was preventing users from updating KYC custom field values in custom page layouts was resolved. (PMG-837657)

• An error that occurred when users exported contacts to other offices was resolved. (PMG-840117)

• While creating a set membership record on the contact Add'l Personal content link, users were receiving an error when they closed the Set List - All Sets dialog box instead of selecting a set. This issue was resolved. (PMG-841984)

• On the contact Key Relations content link, users who tried to add a business key relation were encountering an error when the business did not exist in the SmartOffice database. This issue was resolved. (PMG-842416)

• When a contact's birth date was modified, the prompt to validate the policy age and recalculate the conversion period end date was appearing when the contact had investment positions but no policies or pending cases. The prompt now appears only when the contact has policies or pending cases. (PMG-845296)

• Users were able to mass assign users to contacts that they normally could not access when those contacts were part of a set. This issue was resolved. (PMG-845860)

• An issue that was preventing users from editing web links added to the contact Letters/Documents content link was resolved. (PMG-846462)

• When a contact had a Domestic Partner key relation, the heading on the contact record was displaying the relation as “Spouse.” This issue was resolved. (PMG-846943)

• An error that some users were encountering when they tried to import custom page layout templates was resolved. (PMG-849891)

• A contact age calculation issue was resolved. Age was being increased by one on the day before the contact's birthday. (PMG-849955)

• Some users who imported contact lists containing spouse information were finding that SmartOffice was not creating the spouse records and associated household records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-850555)

• An issue with custom fields on the contact Personal content link was preventing record sharing from working properly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852822)

• Users who customized the Contact List layout to include the Spouse Preferred E-mail column were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-857061)

• E-mail addresses with the E-mail for Commission Information designation that are also marked as preferred were not appearing in the Preferred E-mail and All E-Mail Addresses list columns. This issue was resolved. (PMG-858394)

• After adding a list of contacts to a marketing campaign using the Marketing Options command, users were encountering an issue. If the campaign's handling options included creating an initial activity, the Marketing Options command was creating that activity for only some of the selected contacts. This issue was resolved. (PMG-861838)

• An issue with updating the address of a head of household was resolved. When SmartOffice offered to also update the addresses of key relations, users who clicked the Yes button were finding that key relations were not being updated in some instances. (PMG-866141)

• An error that occurred when users tried to restore deleted contacts was resolved. (PMG-868904)

• An error that occurred when users tried to merge contacts from a list was resolved. (PMG-868914)

• Users who added the ExtLinkSource and ssHeadEXTLInkObjectID columns from the ContactExtLink table to the Contact List were encountering an error when they accessed the list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-869028)

• Users whose permissions were configured to prevent them from modifying contacts or other record types were unable to see the following options in phone number records:

- Mark as Preferred Phone

- Primary Business Phone

- Do not call

This issue was resolved. (PMG-870449)

• In contact search results, the system was not highlighting records that were shared from other offices. The highlighting was restored. (PMG-870590)

• Phone numbers and addresses that were not marked as primary were not being transferred to new key relations created for a contact. This issue was resolved. (PMG-873483)

• On the Contact List, the Letters Sent column was displaying inaccurate values. This issue was resolved. (PMG-873567)

• Some users who customized the layout of the contact Personal content link were finding that, when they added a primary advisor to a contact and saved their changes, the advisor information was disappearing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-874354)

• While viewing a contact list, users who selected the Add to Set command were encountering an issue. After searching for a set and customizing the column layout of the results list, users were seeing an error when they closed the list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875290)

• An issue with using the Add to Set command from a record list was resolved. The issue occurred when a set name and user were entered in the Search Sets dialog box. When the specified user was not the set's creator, closing the set search results dialog box was producing an error. (PMG-875291)

• Searches for contacts whose last names contain spaces were not returning results. This issue was resolved. (PMG-880792)

• An issue that occurred during key relation entry was resolved. After the user selected the Professional relationship type using the keyboard (by pressing P twice), the relationship type was reverting to Family when the user selected a choice under Define the Relationship using the mouse. (PMG-881431)

• Users were encountering an error when they copied a contact's address from the Addresses section to the Remarks field and then saved the record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-882887)

Correspondence

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

• An issue with auto-send letters configured for presale activities was resolved. When a presale status change triggered the letter, SmartOffice was not expanding the merge codes in the letter template. This issue was resolved. (PMG-817014)

• An issue with the household-related F\_HH\_SALUTATION merge code that was causing unexpected results in correspondence was resolved. (PMG-822021)

• An issue with the household-related HHAddress merge code was resolved. When used in correspondence, it was always expanding to display the head of household's preferred address. This issue was resolved so that the merge code gives precedence to the household's address, if one exists; otherwise it displays the head of household's address. (PMG-822026)

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

• During manual e-mail posting from Outlook to SmartOffice, the Selected Contacts list was displaying archived contacts in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-838710)

• An issue with creating correspondence templates was resolved. When a user opted to create a template based on an existing document stored locally, selecting the document was producing an error stating that the template was corrupt. (PMG-843994)

• In the Correspondence Wizard, users who selected the Using a Set option on the Recipients step were finding that the list of available sets was loading slowly. The Members column was identified as the cause, so that column was removed. (PMG-844013)

• In the Letter Template detail dialog box, the Pick Date button in the Expires On field was not working. This issue was resolved. (PMG-844920)

• An issue that was preventing run-time user input merge codes from populating was resolved. (PMG-847684)

• The system was not alerting Outlook users when they tried to post e-mail messages that had already been posted to SmartOffice. The alert was restored. (PMG-851269)

• In contact lists, the Communication Privacy column was not displaying a Yes value for contacts that had the Do not phone dial, Do not e-mail or Do not SMS privacy options selected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-858587)

• An issue with sending calendar activity confirmation e-mail messages from SmartOffice was resolved. When a default subject line was specified for the correspondence template, the e-mail message's subject line was displaying the activity's subject instead of the template's default subject. (PMG-869040)

• The Menu > Communication > Correspondence command was not available from the results list of a Household- or Household Members-category Dynamic Report. This issue was resolved. (PMG-869763)

• When a secure delivery e-mail subject prefix was configured in Office Settings, SmartOffice was not adding the prefix to the subject lines of outgoing e-mail messages as expected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-883328)

Data Import/Export

• When an Enterprise View user in Impersonate Mode imported records into a child office, the resulting set was showing incorrect Created By user information. This issue was resolved. (PMG-830229)

• While performing a contact import, users who mapped a column to the SmartPad's Memo Date field were finding that the system was inserting the current date in that field instead. This issue was resolved. (PMG-863781)

• An error that was preventing users from importing employee census data with key relations was resolved. (PMG-873167)

• An issue that was preventing users from exporting presale activity Dynamic Report results was resolved. (PMG-877777)

• While viewing the details of a .csv file import in the Data Import Log, users were unable to customize the list layout because the relevant command was missing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-880540)

Dynamic Reports

• An issue with the Automatic Report E-mailing feature was resolved. When a report was configured to include a large number of characters in the e-mail body, users who tried to add more recipients were encountering an error. (PMG-732083)

• When running a Dynamic Report produced only one result, SmartOffice was directly opening the record instead of displaying a list of results. This issue was resolved so that reports always display a list of results. (PMG-811836)

• 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)

• 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 preventing users from importing Dynamic Report definitions into SmartOffice was resolved. (PMG-817332)

• 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)

• An issue with Letters Sent-category Dynamic Reports was resolved. When users selected the Sent By sorting/grouping option, SmartOffice was sorting the report by the Created By date instead. (PMG-829876)

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

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

• Issues with running Export Log-category Dynamic Reports in a multi-office enterprise environment were resolved:

- When the user running the reports had Enterprise View turned on, the reports were displaying results from the user's office only and not from any child offices.

- When the user running the reports was signed in to a specific child office (i.e., impersonating a child-office user), the reports were displaying no results when they should have been displaying results from the child office.

(PMG-833797)

• An issue that was preventing users from exporting the results of Dynamic Reports based on the Interested Parties table was resolved. (PMG-838529)

• An issue affecting Dynamic Reports that prompt for filter criteria when they are run was resolved. In some server environments, when such a report was configured for automatic e-mailing using the CSV option, the report was failing and generating processing errors. (PMG-848145)

• An issue that was preventing the Dynamic Report Setup wizard from opening properly was resolved. (PMG-858225)

• An issue with using the Remove from Favorites command on a Dynamic Reports list was resolved. The command was not working properly when the reports had been added to the user's favorites using the Add to Office Favorites (All Users) option. (PMG-863001)

• An issue with filter creation during Dynamic Report setup was resolved. After the user entered and saved criteria for the new filter, the filter name was not appearing in the filter list. (PMG-863418)

• An issue that was preventing users from creating correspondence from certain advisor Dynamic Reports was resolved. (PMG-863566)

• Users who tried to export the results of a Dynamic Report were encountering an error when the record count was high. This issue was resolved. (PMG-869814)

• An issue that was preventing users from saving changes to automated e-mail rules in Dynamic Reports was resolved. (PMG-871439)

• When creating a Dynamic Report, users were finding that the Only Modifiable by Me option on the Detail/Add Filter screen was not available in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-874555)

• Users who exported the results of a Summary-layout Dynamic Report to .csv or .xls format were finding that the export file was blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875859)

• An issue with SmartPad Dynamic Reports displaying E-mail-type entries was resolved. When a report's layout contained the Notes column and the row layout was set to Full, SmartOffice was displaying text in the Notes column with the formatting removed. (PMG-876631)

• When a SmartPad Dynamic Report was added to a custom page layout, long notes were not displaying in their entirety. This issue was resolved. (PMG-877114)

• When attempting to create a Dynamic Report from the report search dialog box, users who clicked the Quick Report button and then selected a report category were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-878745)

• During quick Dynamic Report creation, selecting the Contact ID choice from the Look For drop-down list was making the Range drop-down blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-880140)

• After running a Contact/Business-category Dynamic Report, users were unable to mass modify fields in the Business Custom table because that table was missing from the Mass Modification dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-882836)

Home Page

• When adding a tab to the SmartOffice home page, users who selected an existing dashboard to populate the tab were initially seeing a blank tab. The dashboard was displaying in the tab only after the home page was refreshed. This issue was resolved. (PMG-823548)

• A loading error that was displaying in RSS portlets on the home page was resolved. (PMG-854999)

• Several RSS feeds available for addition to users' home page tabs were no longer valid. These feeds were removed from the list of choices. (PMG-867055)

• An error that users were encountering when they clicked the Go to List button on home page Dynamic Report portlets was resolved. (PMG-868147)

• Users without administrator rights were able to edit Dynamic Reports on home page tabs in some instances, even when the report's creator had selected the Only Modifiable by Me option. This issue was resolved. (PMG-874246)

• When a dashboard administrator selected the Force Focus on Next Login option for a shared tab, the tab was not appearing at sign-in for all users as expected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-874917)

• When displayed within a custom portlet on a user's home page, SmartPad Dynamic Reports were not displaying appended SmartPad entries. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875996)

• An issue that was preventing some dashboard reports from loading properly was resolved. (PMG-877435)

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)

• In the Policy Summary PDF report, Benefit Amount field values were missing commas, making the numbers hard to read. In addition, cents were appearing as three digits after the decimal point for these values. These issues were resolved. (PMG-830494)

• Certain Crystal Reports that were run at the policy or investment level were returning a default report without any data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852931)

SmartOffice Sync for Microsoft Exchange

• An issue with synchronizing business phone numbers with Exchange was resolved. The issue occurred when a SmartOffice contact had two business phone numbers and one was marked as Preferred. After sync, duplicates of the preferred business number were appearing in the Exchange contact record, while the non-preferred business number was not appearing at all. (PMG-830207)

• When the SmartOffice Sync & E-mail Posting for Microsoft Exchange user right was cleared for a user account, any active Exchange sync setups for that account were not being automatically deleted from the database. Similarly, when the SmartOffice Sync for Microsoft Exchange license was disabled for an office, any active sync setups created for users in that office were not being deleted. These issues were resolved. (PMG-836202)

• An issue with creating Exchange sync setups was resolved. Users who selected a choice other than the default choice from the Contact Sync Options drop-down list and then saved the record were finding that the drop-down list was reverting to the default choice. This issue was resolved. The user's selection is now saved properly when the element under in the server config.xml file is set to false. (PMG-849899)

• SmartOffice was not creating SmartPad entries for Exchange sync activity updates in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-860188)

• When a recurring activity was created in Microsoft Exchange, only the first occurrence was synchronizing to SmartOffice. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875524)

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)

• While viewing the SmartPad using Compact Mode or Preview Mode, users who pointed to the text in the Notes column were not seeing a preview of the entire note. This issue was resolved. (PMG-682385)

• An issue that occurred when users pasted text from an e-mail message into a new SmartPad note was resolved. When the note was saved, SmartOffice was removing spaces between some words. (PMG-748247)

• Printed SmartPad notes were not retaining line breaks in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-821382)

• 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)

• Opening the SmartPad for two or more households was causing an error for Enterprise View users who selected the View Data from All Offices within the Hierarchy below a Selected Office option. This issue was resolved. (PMG-844931)

• An error that some users were encountering when searching SmartPad entries was resolved. (PMG-844933)

• For some users, the Notes column in the SmartPad was displaying only the first line of the note instead of the entire note. This issue was resolved. (PMG-847596)

• An issue that was causing SmartPad notes to overlap for some users was resolved. (PMG-850354)

• Two SmartPad commands that are no longer functional in SmartOffice Online, Do Not Archive and Allow Archive, were still accessible from the SmartPad's Menu button. These commands were removed. (PMG-875910)

• An issue affecting E-mail-type SmartPad entries containing a small amount of text was resolved. When the SmartPad's row layout was set to Preview or Compact, the Notes column was displaying e-mail text with line breaks, which was limiting the amount of text that users could preview in that column. The line breaks no longer appear.  (PMG-877001)

SmartCalendar

Enhancements

• Persistent agenda view settings: When a user filters the calendar Agenda view using the data range and status drop-down lists, SmartOffice now remembers those options the next time the user navigates to the agenda. (PMG-744999)

• 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)

• Ability to limit proxy-related calendar data views: Enterprise customers can now limit the ability of users to view other users' calendar data when proxy relationships are involved. This enhancement applies to the calendar itself as well as activity Dynamic Reports. By default, when SmartOffice displays the Available Users list, selecting View > Show Users in Proxy/Groups displays the following:

- Users whose data the signed-in user can see

- Users who can see the signed-in user's data

Enterprise customers can change this behavior so that the list displays only those users whose data the signed-in user can see. To do so, the SmartOffice server administrator must change the value of the element in the server config.xml file to false. (PMG-837547)

• Ability to limit user group calendar data views: Enterprise customers can now limit the ability of users to view other users' calendar data where user groups are involved. This enhancement applies to the calendar itself as well as activity Dynamic Reports. By default, when SmartOffice displays the Available Users list, selecting View > Show Users in Proxy/Groups displays all user groups in the office. Enterprise customers can change this behavior so that the list displays only those user groups to which the signed-in user belongs. To do so, the SmartOffice server administrator must change the value of the element in the server config.xml file to false. (PMG-837549)

• Enhanced SmartPad entries for activities: When an activity contains a subject and description, any system-generated SmartPad entries related to that activity now display both pieces of information. Previously, these entries displayed only the description, even when the activity also had a subject. (PMG-852986)

Resolved Issues

• When creating all-day activities, users were finding that the Show Time As drop-down list in the Activity Detail dialog box was set to Free by default instead of Busy. This was happening when the user's Activity Add Mode setting in User Preferences > Activity Options was set to Comprehensive Add. This issue was resolved. (PMG-560888)

• On the activity Scheduling tab, issues with the alignment of participant names and times were resolved. (PMG-652519)

• 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)

• Issues with printing activity lists were resolved:

- The contents of the Description column were difficult to read in some instances because text formatting was not being retained.

- Long e-mail addresses were extending into adjacent columns.

(PMG-811361)

• Changing a new activity from a task to a timed activity or vice versa was not automatically updating the Type field to the correct default value. This issue was resolved. (PMG-820937)

• 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)

• In activity Dynamic Reports, when users pointed to the Activity Date column and selected the Mark Done option in the information card, SmartOffice was displaying a message stating that the feature was not available. This issue was resolved. (PMG-833620)

• An issue affecting users who enabled the Show Other Users' Calendar option was resolved. When these users ran an activity Dynamic Report, the results were including data from users whose status was Disabled, even though the user's View Other Users' Calendars setting in User Preferences was not set to Yes (All Statuses). (PMG-837548)

• When a user's View Other Users' Calendars setting in User Preferences was set to No, the user was still being prompted to select users when running Calendar-family Dynamic Reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-838402)

• In the Activity dialog box, users who pointed to the linked contact's name to display its information card were finding that the card data was cut off in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-839537)

• While viewing the results of an activity search, users who tried to mark an activity as Done when it had previously been marked as Done were seeing a blank dialog box. The issue was occurring when users tried to mark the activity as Done from the information card or the icon in the Mark Done column. This issue was resolved. (PMG-842426)

• Users were unable to mark activities Done from the contact Activity Log tab using the icon in the Mark Done column. This issue was resolved. (PMG-845308)

• Tasks created for users in the UTC+12:00 and above time zones were shifting to the next day in the calendar. This issue was resolved. (PMG-848847)

• When SmartOffice automatically moved an unfinished task to the current day, the system was not properly updating the database, which was preventing the updated task from synchronizing with Microsoft Exchange. This issue was resolved. (PMG-851764)

• An issue with the Comprehensive Activity Outcome Wizard was resolved. Users who edited the Activity Details section of the outcome dialog box and entered an end date falling before the start date were not receiving a warning message. The message was restored. (PMG-852052)

• Users who ran the Activity Statistics Report and then printed the report were finding that the Letters count was displaying as "NaN" in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-853348)

• Activities linked to child-office contacts were not visible in the calendar Month view when users navigated to that view from the calendar's Group Scheduling tab. This issue was resolved. (PMG-855668)

• When marking an activity as Done, users who selected the Sale Made outcome option but did not complete all required fields were not seeing the appropriate warning message. This issue was resolved. (PMG-855769)

• SmartOffice Online customers who use Exchange calendar sync were unable to synchronize appointments that were assigned categories. This issue was resolved. (PMG-858618)

• When a user deleted a recurring activity, the system was generating an "Activity Logically Deleted" entry in the SmartPad for each deleted recurrence, cluttering the SmartPad. The system now generates a single entry for deleted recurring activities. (PMG-861176)

• The system was creating a SmartPad entry when a calendar activity was deleted, even when office settings were configured not to create entries for activities in the SmartPad. This issue was resolved. (PMG-861490)

• In the Activity Outcome dialog box, clicking the Customize Choice button next to the Outcome Options list was not opening the Drop-down Choice Customization dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-867943)

• When using the Add Important Dates to the Calendar feature, Internet Explorer users who selected the Extract Dates from Specific Table option were finding that, when they selected a table name, the list of fields for that table was blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-870763)

• In the calendar Agenda view, choices were disappearing from the Date Ranges drop-down list after the user navigated away from the page and then back. This issue was resolved. (PMG-873884)

• On the calendar Agenda view, some users who selected Specific Day as the date range and then clicked the Next Day button were seeing all activities rather than just the activities for the next day. This issue was resolved. (PMG-874324)

• An issue that was causing users to receive notifications for deleted activities was resolved. (PMG-877429)

• Users who printed calendar activity reports using the Calendar Month Portrait layout were finding that, when an activity's description contained a web address, the address was overlapping with content in the next column. This issue was resolved. (PMG-881400)

• When users created activities during the activity outcome workflow, choices in the activity Sub-Type drop-down list that should have been hidden were visible. This issue was resolved. (PMG-882159)

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)

• When accepting a lead, Internet Explorer users were unable to select the Apply Correspondence default options check box in the Select Action for Accepted Leads dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-832235)

• Users who tried to navigate to their office’s Web Leads URL were encountering a 404 error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-832921)

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)

• Activity columns for opportunity action reports: When creating opportunity Dynamic Reports in the Actions report category, users can now include columns from the Activity table. One example is the Mark Done column, which can be included in a report so that users can mark action-related activities Done directly from the report results. (PMG-808256)

Resolved Issues

• An issue affecting offices configured with a default opportunity process was resolved. While creating an opportunity record, users who clicked the More button in the New - Opportunity dialog box were finding that the Process drop-down lists under Add Additional Opportunities were not set to the default process. (PMG-780913)

• On the opportunity Detail content link, when the Mark Done column was included in the list layout of the Stage Actions for Current/Previous section, the Mark Done icon was missing from the column. This issue was resolved. (PMG-808253)

• 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)

• The Next and Previous buttons in the Custom Button Bar were not working when users tried to view opportunity records from an opportunity list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822304)

• 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)

• Two issues with the Opportunity Dashboard's Pipeline Report option were resolved:

- Clicking the Refresh button was switching to the Forecast Report option.

- The Tree Control and Summary layout options were not working.

(PMG-834653)

• On the Global Opportunity List and the contact Opportunities tab, users who opened a record and then tried to navigate to the next record were seeing the message "You have reached the end of the list," even when the end had not been reached. This issue was resolved. (PMG-837601)

• An issue affecting opportunities linked to records shared from another office was resolved. When a user ran an opportunity Dynamic Report containing the Actions - Update column, the Mass Modify Opportunity Stage button in that column was not working properly if the opportunity resided in the other office. (PMG-839874)

• When users changed an opportunity's stage from the activity outcome dialog box, the Close Probability (%) field on the opportunity Detail content link was not being updated. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852879)

• In Opportunity Setup, users who tried to create an opportunity stage during the process creation workflow were encountering an incorrect message stating: "No stages were created for this Process. Mark it Inactive?" This issue was resolved. (PMG-853982)

• In opportunity and leads lists, the color coding in the Priority column was not appearing for records that were assigned a priority. This issue was resolved. (PMG-855100)

• An issue with opportunities created for an advisor using the Marketing Options feature was resolved. In some instances, the opportunity was not visible on the advisor's Opportunities tab but was visible in Dynamic Reports displaying all opportunities in the office. (PMG-857218)

• Users who performed Event-type stage actions from an opportunity record were encountering errors when they tried to send correspondence or add invitees. These issues were resolved. (PMG-859634)

• While recording an activity outcome, users who moved a contact to the next stage of a linked opportunity were not being given the option to cancel any unfinished activities in the current stage. This issue was resolved. (PMG-863288)

• The Menu button, Options button and tabs were disappearing when users navigated to the contact Opportunities tab and browsed certain opportunity content links. This issue was resolved. (PMG-863426)

• An error that users were encountering when they tried to save a new opportunity process record was resolved. In addition, while editing an opportunity stage, users who selected the Automatically advance stage if actions are completed option and then selected the stage to advance to were receiving an error after clicking the OK button. This issue was also resolved. (PMG-864533)

• When the layout of the opportunity Detail content link was customized to include the Opportunity Notes portlet, users who tried to create a note using the portlet's buttons were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-874464)

• On the opportunity Detail content link, users were unable to delete multiple items simultaneously or change the current selection in the Stages drop down list in the Stage Actions for Current/Previous section. These issues were resolved. (PMG-878743, PMG-880988)

• An issue with linking opportunity stages to activity outcomes in Opportunity Setup was resolved. After selecting an opportunity process, users who tried to select a stage in certain ways were being presented with a list of all stages rather than just those stages linked to the selected process. (PMG-882262)

SmartRecruiting

Enhancements

•  Candidate import enhancements: Several improvements were made to the candidate import workflow:

- The Source to Hire field was added to the Select Options step in the import wizard. If a record in the import file does not contain a Source to Hire value, the value entered here is inserted into the imported record.

- The Source to Hire field is now also available on the Select Mapping step of the import wizard.

- On the Select Options step, the value entered in the Recruiting Source field now populates for all imported records that do not already have a value for that field.

(PMG-858234)

Resolved Issues

• On the candidate Interviews/Actions content link, users who viewed the details of a record in the Interviews section were running across layout issues. These issues were resolved. (PMG-842111)

• Several issues with importing candidate records were resolved:

- The record source options available in the import wizard applied to contact records, not candidate records.

- SmartPad entries in the import file were not being imported.

- The Source to Hire, Recruiting Source and other candidate fields were not mappable.

- The set created after import was a contact/business set, not a candidate set.

(PMG-849898)

• In Recruit Information-category Dynamic Reports, Set Membership filters were not working properly, causing reports to incorrectly display no data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-862519)

• When trying to merge a candidate record into an advisor record, users were encountering a "contact merge failed" error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875299)

SmartEvents

Resolved Issues

• When adding a venue record in Event Setup, users who saved the record without entering any data were finding that the size of the Event Setup dialog box was changing unexpectedly. This issue was resolved. (PMG-837391)

• For certain events, the Event Status History dialog box was missing the Select the appropriate Event Status and Remarks sections. This issue was resolved. (PMG-846643)

• The EventDateTime merge code in event-related correspondence was displaying the wrong event start date and time when expanded. This issue was resolved. (PMG-860673)

• An issue that was causing duplicate records to be created during the invitee import process was resolved. (PMG-874981)

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)

New Commands for Adding Contracts and Rates

From a policy or advisor contract record, users who click the Supervisor Contract hyperlink can now create a contract record from the Supervisor Contract List dialog box by selecting Menu > New 'Advisor Contract' Record.

Similarly, a command for adding a rate was added to the Commission Rates List dialog box that opens when a user views a policy rider hierarchy record and clicks the Carrier Rate or House Rate hyperlink. (PMG-845849)

Presale Status Report

Similar to the existing Case Status feature, the new Presale Status report enables users to send print or e-mail reports to advisors detailing the status of their presale activities/proposals. This feature is available to any user who has the Presale Activity/Proposals user right. To get started, select Sales & Marketing > Presale Status from the side menu to see the report options.

The system generates reports for all advisors with presale activities, unless the user limits the report to specific advisors using the By selected advisors option. The Preview button shows the user a list of advisors who will receive a report given the selected options. For more information, see the Advisors/Agencies - Presale Activities/Proposals help topic. (PMG-790701)

Presale Advisor License/Appointment Check

While viewing a presale activity/proposal, users can now quickly check for missing and outdated licensing, appointment, contract and other information in the associated advisor's SmartOffice record. From an open presale activity record, select Menu > Check License/Appointment to open a dialog box that lists any issues detected.

 (PMG-796632)

Ability to View Agency Key Relations' Policies

Users can now quickly view the policies linked to any agency's key relations. This enhancement is useful for quickly seeing the policies of one or more advisors linked to the agency. Go to the agency Key Relations content link and select one or more key relations under Business Hierarchy. Then click the Options button and select Related Policies to open a list of policies. This feature is also available on the business Key Relations content link. (PMG-829313)

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)

• Faster presale activity creation: When a user who is viewing a policy or pending case creates a presale activity from the Add New menu, SmartOffice now automatically transfers data from the policy/pending case fields to the new presale record. This enhancement saves the user from having to manually enter the primary advisor, primary insured, carrier, product, and other information. (PMG-800584)

• 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)

• 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)

• Advisor field audit tracking: Changes to the advisor Remarks and Marketing Mgr fields are now tracked using the Audit Trail feature and can be viewed from the Changes tab in the SmartPad. (PMG-829217)

• Mass modification of follow-up date for presale records: Users can now modify the Follow-Up date column for multiple presale activity records at once. The column has been added to the list of available columns when users select Menu > Advanced Options > Mass Modify from any list of presale records. (PMG-844195)

• Commission E-mail Address columns for advisor/agency reports: When creating Advisor/Agency-category Dynamic Reports, users can now include columns displaying information about the commission statement e-mail addresses of advisors/agencies. In the list layout of the report, select the Commission E-mail Address table to access columns like Address, Created On and Preferred. (PMG-848310)

• ACH report and list improvements: To make advisor/agency automated clearing house (ACH) lists and Dynamic Reports more useful, the system now allows users to add the Created By and Modified By columns from the ACH table to list layouts. As part of this enhancement, the Created By and Modified By subtables under the ACH table were removed from the Tables Available list. (PMG-864104)

• Custom fields for advisor appointments: Two custom alphanumeric fields were added to the advisor Appointment Information dialog box, enabling users to track additional data about the appointment that is not already tracked in other fields.

(PMG-868031)

• New columns for agency lists: The DBA and Abbreviation columns from the AgencyAdditionalInfo table can now be added to agency list layouts. (PMG-875699)

• Improved case status follow-up logic: When no policy-based follow-ups are configured for the office, SmartOffice now moves a pending case's Next Follow-Up date to the Last Follow-Up field once a case status report is sent. This leaves the Next Follow-Up field blank so that the case will not be included in a subsequent case status report. (PMG-879833)

• Ability to track life suitability compliance: Users can now track the status of an advisor's compliance with life insurance suitability training. On the advisor License/Compliance content link, add a record to the Compliance Status section and set the Compliance Type drop-down list to Life Suitability (Training).

(PMG-882313)

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)

• Renamed user rights: On the User Rights content link of SmartView for Advisors user accounts, the Riders & Reinsurance user right was renamed Show Riders & Reinsurance to SVA users to make its purpose clearer. Similarly, the Show Additional Info. Content Link user right was renamed Show Additional Info. Content Link to SVA users. In addition, these user rights are now hidden for non-SmartView for Advisors accounts. (PMG-834923, PMG-883042)

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 with agencies assigned as supervisors on advisor records was resolved. The issue occurred when users opened an agency record by clicking the agency name in the Supervisor field of the advisor record. In the these instances, the Appointment List on the agency Cont./Appt. content link was always blank, even when the agency had appointments. (PMG-828122)

• When an advisor with a middle name was added as the supervisor for an agency, clicking the supervisor's name in the agency record was displaying a message stating that the record did not exist. This issue was resolved. (PMG-828550)

• 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)

• An issue with advisor searches was resolved. When a user searched for an inactive advisor, the system was displaying SmartSearch results that included the advisor's name, and clicking the name was displaying the advisor as a contact record. (PMG-833351)

• On the advisor Requests/Requirements content link, issues with the Mass Assign Current Manager command on the Advisor Request List were resolved. After a user selected a manager, the manager dialog box was not closing. In addition, if a user clicked the OK button without selecting a manager, the prompt to select a manager was not appearing. (PMG-835715)

• In the New - Advisor dialog box, users who clicked the Customize Choice button for the Sub-Type, Suffix and Title drop-down lists were encountering incorrectly sized and/or labeled dialog boxes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-837365)

• On the advisor Personal content link, when an agency was entered in the Supervisor field, users who clicked the Supervisor hyperlink were being taken to the agency record, but the page layout was that of an advisor record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-841727)

• An issue with viewing the details of a presale activity from the advisor Presale Activity/Proposals tab was resolved. When users clicked the Opportunity hyperlink, the Opportunity List dialog box that opened was not displaying any existing opportunities. In addition, when the user added an opportunity from the dialog box, the new opportunity was not appearing in the list. (PMG-842093)

• While using the Advisor Reassignment command, users were finding that the associated correspondence workflow was not working properly. The .sopro configuration file needed to complete the workflow was not downloading to the user's computer. This issue was resolved. (PMG-842141)

• The system was resetting the Popular Date Ranges and LOB fields on the Production Dashboard report every time the report was run. This issue was resolved. (PMG-843044)

• An issue that was preventing Production Dashboard data from updating properly in some instances was resolved. (PMG-844050)

• After clicking the New button and selecting the Presale - Quick Quote option, users who entered a face amount and clicked the Save & Repeat button were finding that the dialog box was displaying a different face amount. This issue was resolved. (PMG-844701)

• Users who added a SmartPad - Advisor/Agency-category Dynamic Report to an advisor custom page layout were encountering an error when they saved and applied the layout. This issue was resolved. (PMG-845243)

• On the advisor Cont./Appt. content link, an error that users were encountering when they tried to view policies related to a contract was resolved. (PMG-845681)

• Enterprise View users in Impersonate Mode were encountering an error when they tried to customize the page layout of an agency record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-846006)

• Users who navigated to a supervisor record from the advisor Personal content link were encountering an error when they clicked the Commission content link on the supervisor record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-848598)

• An issue with creating an advisor request from the advisor Request/Requirement content link was resolved. When trying to add an advisor requirement to the request, users who tried to close the Requirement Detail dialog box without completing the required fields were encountering an "insert/update" error. The correct error message was restored. (PMG-849900)

• Modifying an advisor ACH record was not updating the Modified By column from the Modified By table. This issue was resolved. (PMG-853588)

• While converting a presale activity to a group pending case, users were seeing a blank message box when the presale insured was a contact instead of a business. This issue was resolved so that the message "Insured should be a Business" now appears. (PMG-859130)

• When the Advisor Diary option was enabled in Office Settings (on the SmartPad/New Contact/E-mail Posting content link), deleting an advisor ACH record was posting an entry to the SmartPad as expected, but the Notes column was not displaying details of the deleted record (e.g., account type and bank routing number). This issue was resolved. (PMG-863879)

• An issue with new LTC-type presale activities was resolved. When the record was saved, the fields for entering benefit information were not appearing as expected. This issue was resolved. (PMG-864385)

• On the advisor Pending Cases tab, users who tried to apply a column filter to the Annualized Premium column were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875295)

• When the Parent Office column from the Agency Additional Information table was added to the Advisor List, the column was displaying the advisor's agency instead of the agency's parent office. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875741)

• An issue with mass modifying follow-up dates for presale activities was resolved. When a presale activity was assigned an action that was configured as an action exclusion in Policy/Case Setup > Follow-up > Presale Activity/Proposals, the mass modification was still creating a follow-up activity for the presale. (PMG-876995)

• A server issue that was preventing users from sending case status reports was resolved. (PMG-880000)

• In offices configured to automatically generate e-mail case status reports, the system was not updating the Next Follow-up and Last Follow-up date fields of cases included in those reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-880164)

• Users who tried to preview or send a case status report with the All pending cases based on follow-up date option selected were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-881586)

• Two issues with license and appointment records related to the NIPR integration were resolved:

- When a user created a product license type to be mapped to a NIPR line of authority in Policy/Case Setup > Licensing/Contracting Setup, the Product License Type field was not blank by default.

- In advisor license and appointment records, selecting a product license type mapped to a NIPR line of authority was not displaying the associated lines of business as configured in Policy/Case Setup.

 (PMG-882380)

• When configuring advisors' carbon copy recipients for case status reports, users who selected the Check here if the contact above is the only recipient of correspondence option were unable to clear that option. This issue was resolved. (PMG-884537)

SmartView for Advisors

• The Menu > Advanced Options > Mass Assign Advisor command was available to SmartView for Advisors users who have SmartOffice-format accounts. This command is not intended for these users and was removed. (PMG-844405)

• The ability to send broadcast alerts was inadvertently enabled for SmartView for Advisors users. This feature has been disabled because it is not intended for use by advisors. (PMG-846038)

• On the advisor Cont./Appt. content link, two issues affecting SmartView for Advisors accounts were resolved:

- The Process Contract Commission and Contract Change Utility commands were available in the Advisor Contract List. These commands were removed because they do not apply to SmartView for Advisors accounts.

- The Contract Hierarchy command in the Advisor Contract List was not displaying any hierarchy data. This command now displays advisor-level data.

(PMG-879171)

SmartPolicies

Featured Enhancements

Policy Inception Date Field

Users can now track a policy's inception date to indicate when coverage begins. The Inception Date field was added to the default page layouts of the policy Basic Information and group policy Detail content links. For more information, see SmartPolicies - Basic Information Content Link.

(PMG-863886)

Policy Transaction Portlets for Policy Page Layouts

When creating custom page layouts for policies or pending cases, users can now add two new predefined portlets:

• Policy Transaction

• Commissionable Premium Payment Transaction List.

These portlets display data from the policy/pending case Policy Transactions content link. (PMG-879312)

Other 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 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)

• Policy beneficiary column change: On policy lists, the Beneficiary column now displays names in first name last name format instead of last name, first name. This makes the column more consistent with other policy relationship columns, such as Payor. (PMG-829473)

• Fast updating of requirements when changing an insured: When a user changes the insured or annuitant on a policy or pending case, the system now asks whether any associated requirements should be updated as well. Clicking the Yes button updates all requirements to link them to the new insured/annuitant. (PMG-831474)

• New "uninsurable" inforce policy status: A new status, Inforce - Uninsurable, is now available for policies in the Active stage. One possible use of this status is to indicate that the insured has become uninsurable since the policy was put inforce (e.g., due to a change in health) and could face difficulties securing new coverage if the policy were to lapse. (PMG-831674)

• New "uninsurable" table rating: Insureds and annuitants linked to policies and pending cases can now be assigned a table rating to indicate that they are uninsurable. To do so, open the appropriate entry in the Policy Insured List or Policy Annuitant list of a policy or case, click the Rate drop-down list, and then select the new Table U (Uninsurable) choice. (PMG-833798)

• Rider annual premium field: When viewed from a policy's Benefits or Coverage content link, rider records now display annual premium information. The rider Annual Prem field is calculated in the same manner as the policy annual premium (modal premium divided by modal factor). The system now calculates commission based on this new field for Annual and Annual First Year Only options in rider rates. (PMG-846197)

• Presale columns for policy reports: In Policy-category Dynamic Reports from the Policy report family, users can now add presale activity-related columns. The Presale Activity/Proposals table was added to the list of available tables for these reports. (PMG-849429)

• Ability to add longer remarks for policy transactions: In policy transaction records, the character limit of the Remarks field was increased to 4,000 from 255. (PMG-850470)

• New policy correspondence merge codes: Several merge codes for party relationship roles were added in the Policy/Pending Case Management category:

- BeneficiaryFirstName

- BeneficiaryFullName

- InsuredFirstName

- InsuredFullName

- OwnerFirstName

- OwnerFullName

- RelationshipManagerFirstName

- RelationshipManagerFullName

- TrusteeFirstName

- TrusteeFullName

The "FullName" merge codes expand to display the interested party's first name, middle name, last name and suffix. In addition, a new NetDeathBenefit merge code expands to display the net death benefit on a policy rounded to the nearest dollar. (PMG-858119)

• Custom fields for policy transactions: To allow users to store additional data for policy transactions, SmartOffice now displays nine custom fields in the Policy Transaction dialog box: three alphanumeric, three numeric and three date fields.

(PMG-860927)

• Mass modification for policy/pending case custom fields: Users can now mass modify custom fields defined on the PCM Custom and Policy Custom content links. While viewing a policy or pending case list, select two or more records, and then select Menu > Advanced Options > Mass Modify. Under Policy Custom or PCM Custom, choose the field/column to be modified for all of the selected records, and then enter a value. (PMG-863063)

• Better data provider tracking for holdings: Several enhancements related to policy/pending case data provider information were made:

- Any changes to the value of the Data Provider column in the Holding table are now recorded by the Audit Trail feature of the SmartPad.

- When a policy or pending case is created manually, the value of the column is set to Manually Entered.

- When a policy or pending case is created through Direct Download and Replace, the value of the column is set to Direct Download and Replace.

(PMG-865717)

• New LTC benefit merge codes: Two new merge codes allow users to include maximum monthly benefit information related to long-term care policies in their correspondence. The F\_LTC\_MONTHLY1 merge code displays the maximum monthly nursing home benefit, while the F\_LTC\_MONTHLY2 merge code displays the maximum monthly home care benefit. These values are tracked on the Coverage content link of LTC policies. (PMG-871808)

• New created/modified columns for interested parties: To help users determine when interested parties were added or modified on policies and pending cases (and by whom), the Interested Party table now has three new columns: Created By, Created On, and Modified By. These columns can be added to areas such as the Policy Insured List and Policy Relationship List in policy/pending case records, as well as to interested party Dynamic Reports. (PMG-881366)

• Improved policy page layout customization: When customizing the page layout of policy records, users can now rearrange the fields in the Basic Information and Premium information portlets by dragging them. (PMG-881608)

• Improved logic for policy issue age: When a policy's issue age exists in an inforce policy data feed, the policy record in SmartOffice now reflects that issue age. Previously, SmartOffice was always calculating the issue age based on the insured's birth date and the policy date, regardless of what was sent in the feed. (PMG-882848)

Resolved Issues

• An issue that occurred when users clicked the Options hyperlink in a policy, pending case or group policy record was resolved. In the Options dialog box that opened, users who selected Menu > List Options were finding that the submenu was not visible. (PMG-687233)

• 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)

• 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, IUL, Life Settlement and Permanent. (PMG-829471)

• Two issues with merging policies, products, riders and pending cases were resolved:

- When the records were of different insurance types, the dialog box prompting the user to select records of the same type was blank.

- When the records were not in the Active stage, the dialog box warning the user that the records are not active was blank.

(PMG-831336)

• 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)

• An issue with e-mail correspondence generated from a policy or pending case list was resolved. When a user selected multiple policies/cases and then selected the Launch E-mail command, SmartOffice was forcing the user to select a letter template before displaying the e-mail message window. (PMG-833353)

• Two issues with annuity policies and pending cases were resolved:

- Users who tried to add a second annuitant to a policy or case were finding that the Second Annuitant role was not available for selection, even when the product had the Second Annuitant setting enabled.

- When a policy or case had a second or joint annuitant, the system was improperly allowing users to delete the primary annuitant.

(PMG-833456)

• When a custom page layout was applied to term life policies, the Key Information portlet was displaying the Net Cash Surrender Value and Loan Amount fields, which should not be displayed for that policy type. In addition, the Add'l Death Benefit and Total Death Benefit fields were missing from the portlet. These issues were resolved. (PMG-836068)

• An issue with updating policies, group policies and pending cases was resolved. The issue occurred when an office was set up to automatically generate SmartPad entries when users made changes to policies. Instead of monitoring for changes to policy names, numbers and plan names/carriers only, the system was monitoring many other fields. The result was an excessive number of SmartPad entries being generated. (PMG-838799)

• Two policy issues related to exporting contacts to other offices were resolved:

- When two policies linked to the same product were exported, the product record was being created twice in the target office.

- When policies with subaccounts were exported, the main linked product was being created in the target office, but the products linked to the subaccounts were not.

(PMG-845528)

• An issue was occurring when a contact's preferred address was changed. While viewing any of the contact's policies, users who opened the primary contact record in the Policy Relationship List were finding that the Address field was still displaying the old preferred address. This issue was resolved. (PMG-850616)

• When users copied policy records, policy notes related to posted e-mail messages and documents were not being transferred from the original policy to the new one. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852961)

• While creating a policy, users who entered the last and first name of an interested party (i.e., not selecting an existing contact) were finding that the new interested parties were not appearing in contact searches, even though the appropriate contact records were being created. This issue was resolved. (PMG-855771)

• When viewing existing policy owner service (POS) requirement records, users were finding that the Requirements History List section was too small. This section was expanded to display more history entries at once. (PMG-858115)

• On the Policy Transactions content link, transaction records appearing in the Commissionable Premium Payment Transaction List were no longer visible once commissions were generated for those records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-858661)

• In the requirement follow-ups list, users who selected a policy owner service (POS) or group requirement record and then selected Menu > Policy List were encountering the error "This option is not available for this record type." This issue was resolved. (PMG-858693)

• After an advisor's role on a policy was modified, adding a contract for that advisor and rebuilding the commission hierarchy was resulting in an issue. When contracts were later removed from all advisors on the policy, the policy was not being unlinked from the rates. This issue was resolved. (PMG-862026)

• In some instances, users who selected the Post to Letter Log/SmartPad option in User Preferences > Correspondence Options were finding that policy and pending case correspondence was not being posted to the policy/pending case letter log. This issue was resolved. (PMG-865256)

• When users opened a rider record from the policy Benefits tab and then clicked the Rider Product hyperlink to view product information, the contents of the Remarks field were not visible. This issue was resolved. (PMG-869205)

• An issue that occurred when a custom page layout was applied to policies or pending cases was resolved. When users opened the policy/pending case notes and then clicked the Open Link icon in the notes list, the policy dialog box that opened was distorted. (PMG-870291)

• When a user added the Benefit portlet to a custom page layout for long-term care policies, the portlet's Coverage section was missing several fields. In addition, users were not able to add the missing fields using the page layout editor. This issue was resolved. (PMG-873182)

• During the policy merge process, the system was not transferring commissionable policy transactions from the source record to the target record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-878431)

• On the policy/pending case Benefits or Riders/Reinsurance content link, adding any column from the Error Log table to the Rider List was causing rider entries to disappear from the list. This issue was resolved. (PMG-873785)

• While viewing a policy subaccount's details, users who cleared the Subaccount field and then clicked the Subaccount hyperlink to select a different subaccount were encountering an issue. SmartOffice was displaying a list of all subaccounts in the system instead of just those subaccounts linked to the current product. This issue was resolved. (PMG-873883)

• When trying to create a policy using the same policy number and carrier found on a deleted policy, users were encountering a confirmation message stating that the policy already existed. The system no longer displays this message for deleted policies. (PMG-874845)

• Several issues with using the Launch Word correspondence feature from a policy or pending case were resolved:

- Users were being prompted to select one or more recipients even when they had already done so.

- Policy merge codes were not expanding.

- Letters were being saved only to the primary contact record and not the policy/pending case record.

(PMG-877255)

• When the Policy Summary PDF report was run for a household, the Grand Total was incorrect. This issue was resolved. (PMG-879128)

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)

• Faster product option selection: On the product Detail content link, the Product Options section now allows users to select multiple product options at once. Previously, selecting the New 'Options' Record command from the Options menu in that section allowed users to select only a single product option. (PMG-822208)

• Carrier HO rep/underwriter SmartPad: The system now gives users access to the SmartPad for carrier home office reps and underwriters. On the carrier HO Reps/Underwriters content link, select a rep or underwriter record, click the Options button, and select View SmartPad Notes. (PMG-829206)

• Mass modification of product settings: Users can now modify certain fields on the Product Settings content link for multiple products at once. To do so, select the products on the Product List, and then select Menu > Advanced Options > Mass Modify Product Settings to see the list of modifiable fields/columns.

(PMG-837811)

• Rider product code list: Users can now view a history of changes to a rider's product code, just as they can for other insurance products. While viewing a rider list or the rider's Detail or Product Settings content link, select Menu > Rider Code List to view past product codes associated with the rider. (PMG-864861)

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)

• In custom page layouts for the carrier Detail content link, the Class List portlet was missing a height-adjustment control. The control was restored. (PMG-837804)

• When users added HO rep and underwriter entries on the carrier HO Reps/Underwriters content link, the default Preferred Communication setting was always set to Postal Mail, regardless of the default setting configured for new contacts in Office Settings > SmartPad/New Contact/E-mail Posting. This issue was resolved. (PMG-843144)

• The Product Merge workflow was ending abruptly when users selected the product they wanted to merge. This issue was resolved. (PMG-843759)

• An issue with customizing the page layout of the carrier Detail content link was resolved. When the layout included the Advisor Items to Verify portlet, the portlet's CE Check drop-down list contained more options than the same drop-down list on the carrier's PCM Options content link contained. The choices are now the same in both locations. (PMG-847017)

• From the product Detail content link, users who clicked the carrier name hyperlink to view the carrier record were encountering a blank Class List, even when risk classes were defined at the carrier level. This issue was resolved. (PMG-859124)

• Users who ran Product-category Dynamic Reports were finding that the following Menu commands were not working from the report results list:

- Product Migration

- Product Merge

- Copy Product

This issue was resolved. (PMG-863907)

• When viewing a product's details from the carrier Products tab, users who tried to add an entry to the Product Options section were finding that the new entry was not appearing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875827)

• Users who tried to add columns from the Product Custom or Carrier Custom table to the Rider Product List were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-878687)

• The Product Code List was not appearing when the user did not have the Investment Tracking license. This issue was resolved.

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)

Credit Card Details in APS Requirements

Users can now track credit card information for attending physician's statement (APS) reimbursements. To do so, a user must first have the new Track Credit Card Information license enabled (this license is listed under the SmartPolicies category on the user account User Rights content link). The user can then open an APS requirement in a pending case and click the Credit Card button to reveal fields for entering the credit card type, number and expiration date.

(PMG-816606)

Ability to Choose Different Sender Address for Policy/Pending Case Correspondence

When sending e-mail correspondence from a policy, group policy or pending case record, a user can now change the e-mail address from which the message is sent under certain circumstances. This can be useful, for example, when an advisor's assistant is sending an e-mail to a client on the advisor's behalf and wants the advisor's e-mail address to appear in the From field of the message.

In the Main tab of the correspondence dialog box, under E-mail Layout, select an address from the Sender Address drop-down list.

To see multiple e-mail addresses in this drop-down list, the current user must proxy for another user---user-proxies) (typically an advisor) and must be viewing that user's data (using the See Data For feature). (PMG-873760)

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 pending case status choices: The following choices were added to the Status drop-down list for pending cases (the associated stage is indicated in parentheses):

- Application Not Returned (Inactive)

- Approved - Moving (Approved - for cases that have been approved with one carrier but are being moved to another carrier)

- Approved - Shopping (Approved)

- Approved - Awaiting Reqs (Approved)

- Application Sent to Client (Proposed)

- Electronically Delivered (Issued)

- Free Look Terminated (Inactive)

- Life Settlement/Sold (Inactive)

- OSJ - Branch Manager Review (Issued)

- Paid Pending Delivery (Active)

- Partial Conversion (Active)

- Pre-Screen (Proposed)

- Regional Compliance Review (Issued)

- Sale Not Approved by Regional Compliance (Issued)

- Signature Needed Informal (Informal Application)

- Transferred Agent (Inactive)

(PMG-712384, PMG-815965, PMG-860300, PMG-863887, PMG-868922, PMG-872196, PMG-876332, PMG-879623)

• 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)

• More fields for contacts added during case creation: When creating a contact record for an insured directly from the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box, users can now add phone number and address information. Previously, fields for adding this data were not present in the New - Contact dialog box. (PMG-829008)

• Enhanced licensing/contracting for Enterprise View users: Enterprise View users can now select parent-office users when configuring licensing/contracting managers for a child office. In addition, these users can assign parent-office users to manage advisor requests linked to child-office pending cases. (PMG-832564)

• Specify underwriting type at case creation: A U/W Type field was added to the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box so that users can define the underwriting type when creating pending case records. As part of this enhancement, the Replacement option was moved down under the Face Amount field. (PMG-836418)

• "Visible to Advisors" sorting/filtering: Users can now sort/filter policy lists based on whether the policies are visible to advisors (based on office advisor privacy settings). To do so, add the Visible to Advisors column from the Policy table to any policy, group policy or pending case list and then filter or sort as needed. (PMG-839506)

• Column showing last letter template: In policy, group policy and pending case lists, users with the appropriate rights can now add the Last Letter Template column to the list layout to quickly see the most recent letter template sent for each policy. (PMG-844803)

• Improved case status option selection: On the Pending Case List, users who select Menu > Case Status to open the Case Status dialog box can now edit the options under Advisor. Previously, these options were read-only. (PMG-847168)

• Ability to add advisor personal data to reports: When creating or editing Dynamic Reports from the Policy, Pending Case, Group Policy and Commission families, users can now add columns from the Personal table under the Advisor Basic Info table. (PMG-850595)

• Letters/documents list for service providers: A Letters/Documents content link was added to service provider records. This content link lists any correspondence sent to a service provider from a pending case. (PMG-851706)

• History columns in requirement reports: In pending case requirement Dynamic Reports, users can now add and/or filter on columns from the Requirement History table, including Status, Completed, Remarks and more. (PMG-864804)

• Alphabetical printing of case status reports: When an agency chooses to print case status reports, SmartOffice now sends the reports to the printer in alphabetical order based on the primary advisor's last name. This enhancement helps agencies assemble case status mailings to large numbers of advisors more efficiently. (PMG-864970)

• Improved entry of second-insured data: The method for entering second-insured information in the Pending Case Add Detail dialog box was improved. The Last Name and First Name fields were replaced by a Second Insured hyperlink, which users can click to perform a contact or business search. (PMG-866374)

• Electronic licensing and appointment improvements: SmartOffice now offers more flexible options for processing advisor license and appointment information retrieved electronically from data providers like NIPR. In Policy/Case Setup, go to Licensing/Contracting Setup > Electronic L&A Setup and create or open an existing record. The new fields are How to Process Licensing, How to Process Appointment and Process Demographic Information? For more information, see Policy/Case Setup - Licensing/Contracting Setup. (PMG-870131)

• New mass projection option: In the Mass Projection Utility, a Delete Open commissions in given date range only option was added. This option, available when the Recalculate option is selected, tells the system to delete only those open commission projections that fall within the date range specified in the Start Date and End Date fields.

(PMG-880578)

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 when 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)

• An issue was occurring when SmartOffice was set up to automatically generate a letter for pending cases that reached the Issued stage. When a user opted not to send the letter but did opt to rebuild the commission hierarchy and reproject commissions, SmartOffice was displaying the policy's expected commissions on the home page. (PMG-828935)

• 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)

• A pending case issue affecting Enterprise View users was resolved. The issue occurred when a child-office user created a pending case requirement and selected a parent-office user as the requirement manager. When viewing the requirement from the Requirement Follow-Ups list in the parent office, an Enterprise View user who selected the Menu > Pending Case Management command was encountering an error in some instances stating that the action could not be completed. (PMG-831399)

• In the premium history of a pending case, the following issues were resolved:

- Changing the issued modal premium was not recalculating the annualized premium.

- Changing the submitted or issued commissionable modal premium was not recalculating the commissionable annualized premium.

(PMG-834447)

• After running a Requirements-category pending case Dynamic Report, clicking a policy number in the list of results was opening the pending case record with no tabs. This issue was resolved. (PMG-834469)

• An issue with custom page layouts applied to pending case records was resolved. When an informal term life pending case was formalized, clicking the Plan Name hyperlink in the formalized case was not opening the product list. This issue was occurring when the Benefit and Cash Value portlets were in the layout. (PMG-834663)

• On the requirement Follow-Up list, an issue with running correspondence was resolved. When a user selected multiple requirements and then selected the Correspondence command, the system was displaying the message: "Only the highlighted record will be processed. Continue?" But when the user clicked the Yes button, nothing was happening. (PMG-834902)

• When users created informal pending cases, the plan type options available for selection were always related to the Life insurance type, even when a default insurance type other than Life was defined for informal cases in Policy/Case Setup (under PCM Workflows > PCM Add Setup). This issue was resolved. (PMG-835506)

• On the requirement follow-ups list, users who selected Menu > Pending Case Management to view the associated pending case were finding that they could not view case notes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-837671)

• An issue that was causing the pending case Letters/Documents content link to load slowly for some users was resolved. (PMG-838726)

• While viewing informal child pending case records, users were unable to navigate to other records using the Previous and Next commands. This issue was resolved. (PMG-840797)

• An issue with mass modifying records on policy and pending case lists was resolved. In the Mass Modification dialog box, users who tried to search for columns belonging to the Pending Case group were getting no results, and the Pending Case group was disappearing from the column list. (PMG-841977)

• In some instances, users who tried to view the Informal Application content link of a pending case were encountering issues with the page layout that were preventing them from viewing some data. This issue was resolved. (PMG-842567)

• An error that was occurring when users tried to add phone and address information to System-office carriers, service providers, medical facilities and doctors was resolved. (PMG-844902)

• When copying a pending case, users who opted to copy letters and documents were finding that duplicates of those items were being created in the original case. In addition, those items were not appearing in the new case. This issue was resolved. (PMG-845220)

• The Await Approval pending case workflow was inserting a requirement and making the insured the primary contact instead of the primary insured on the case. This issue was resolved. (PMG-847909)

• When a custom page layout was applied to pending case records, changing a case's status to Approved or Issued using the Status drop-down list was causing underwriting and delivery requirements to disappear from the record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-851721)

• The Insured and Miscellaneous Information buttons were missing from the Detail content link of LTC presale activity records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852692)

• An error that users were encountering when they navigated to Follow-Up > Presale Activity/Proposals in Policy/Case Setup was resolved. (PMG-856037)

• In some instances, when users added underwriting, delivery or POS requirement for second insureds, co-insureds, dependent insureds or join annuitants and then tried to access these contacts by clicking the Insured column hyperlink in the requirement list, a "Your action cannot be completed" error was occurring. This issue was resolved. (PMG-857604)

• From the Pending Cases tab of a business record, users who selected Menu > Workflow to Enter a New Case were getting an error when they tried to edit the Insured-1 section in the Pending Case Add dialog box. This issue, which affected annuity pending cases, was resolved. (PMG-860667)

• The Last Letter On date column from the Holding table was not displaying a value for some pending cases. This issue was resolved. (PMG-864545)

• When the status and status date on a pending case changed, the status of the linked presale activity's status was changing as expected, but the status date was not updating in some instances. This issue was resolved. (PMG-869670)

• An issue with custom page layouts for annuity pending cases was resolved. When the layout contained the Important Contacts portlet and the portlet was modified in any way, users were then unable to update the case manager on the case. (PMG-869744)

• An error that users were encountering when they tried to preview or send a case status report was resolved. (PMG-871191)

• On the Requirements History List, accessible from the Requirement(s) detail dialog box, users were able to add columns from the Requirements table. Because the columns in that table are not relevant to this list, that table was removed. (PMG-871232)

• Users who opened notes for a specific requirement and navigated to the Archived Notes tab were seeing all archived SmartPad entries created in the office. This issue was resolved so that only those archived notes related to the requirement are visible. (PMG-871813)

• The underwriting, delivery and POS requirements of dependent insureds, second annuitants and joint annuitants were not being included in case status reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-872585)

• Updating the status of a pending case underwriting requirement to Received - GA was automatically updating the Required Of field to GA, even though some organizations preferred that the field remain blank. Now, the status is labeled Received, and the Required Of field is no longer updated automatically when the status is selected. (PMG-875620)

• When an automated requirement-specific letter workflow was created in Policy/Case Setup > Letter Setup, the workflow was not working when requirements originating from another office were updated. This issue was resolved. (PMG-876316)

• In some instances during pending case creation, users who selected a carrier and then tried to select a plan were being presented with a list of products available from all carriers. This issue was resolved. (PMG-877317)

• On the Pending Case List, the Last Letter On date column was not updating when a new letter was edited during the preview process and then sent. This issue was resolved. (PMG-879818)

• In some instances, advisor request merge codes were not expanding during automated letter workflows. This issue was resolved. (PMG-880442)

• An issue with the Mass Projection utility was resolved. The issue occurred when the Advisor, Supervisor 1 and Supervisor 2 contracts were blanket contracts but the rates were carrier/product-specific. When a user ran the utility with the Refresh commission hierarchy option selected, the contracts were linked properly in the policy's commission hierarchy, but the rates were not. (PMG-883849)

SmartBenefits

Enhancements

• Streamlined group policy creation: The system no longer asks users to select an insurance type (i.e., product type) when they create group policies. The product type is now determined automatically when the user selects the product for the new policy. (PMG-795391)

• Fast navigation to group policy from requirement follow-up: Users can now open the full group policy record from an associated group requirement follow-up. First, open the requirement follow-ups list (Insurance > Requirement Follow-Ups) and select Group Requirements from the drop-down list at the top. Then select a requirement and select Menu > Policy List. SmartOffice opens the full group policy record and automatically navigates to the policy's Group Requirements content link. (PMG-849442)

• Page layout customization for group policies: Users can now modify the layout of group policy records to tailor the information presented to their business needs. While viewing the group policy Detail content link, select Menu > Page Layouts to get started. For more help, see Page Layout Customization. (PMG-849443)

• Role filter for Group Policies tab: When navigating to the Group Policies tab of a contact, business, advisor or agency record, users can now filter the list of policies by role using the new Role drop-down list at the top. For example, when viewing group policies for an advisor, the user can select Writing Advisor from the Role drop-down list to display only those policies for which the advisor is a writing advisor. (PMG-868616)

• More custom fields for group plan premium: On the Premium content link of a medical group plan, users now have access to two additional rows of alphanumeric custom fields: AlphaNum8 and AlphaNum9. Like the existing custom fields, these new fields can be used to track additional plan data that SmartOffice does not normally track. (PMG-873259)

• Column displaying group plans: On the Group Policy List, users with the appropriate rights can now add a Group Plans column that lists the names of all plans sold under that policy. (PMG-875606)

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)

• On the Group Policy List, an issue that was causing the Lookup columns from the Group Policy Custom table to display incorrect values was resolved. (PMG-833977)

• Several issues that were occurring when users created group policies using the New (Comprehensive) command were resolved:

- The business's primary advisor was not being automatically added to the new record.

- In the Employer field, the business search button was not changing to a Clear button once a business was selected.

- An error was occurring when users tried to cancel out of the policy creation workflow.

(PMG-837356)

• From the Group Policy List, users who clicked the Activity/Mail content link and added an activity were unable to mark the activity as Done from the same page. SmartOffice was becoming unresponsive. This issue was resolved. (PMG-843898)

• The Policy # column from the Interested Party table was blank for the primary contact in group policy records. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852730)

• Issues that were preventing users from merging group products were resolved. (PMG-858815)

• In some instances, users who clicked an employee's name on the business Employee Census content link were seeing a blank contact list instead of the appropriate contact record. This issue was resolved. (PMG-863586)

SmartWholesaler

Resolved Issues

• An issue with the producer/firm Request/Requirement content link was resolved. When a user added an entry to the Advisor Request List, the list was not refreshing automatically to display the new entry. (PMG-829814)

SmartCommissions

Featured Enhancements

Carrier-Level Projection Validity Date Ranges

For the validation of commission transactions in Speed Receipts, administrators now have the option of defining projection validity date range values at the carrier level (previously, these values could be defined only at the office level). To do so, go to the carrier CTM Options content link and enter the values in the new Projection Validity Date Range section.

During validation in Speed Receipts, the system will look at the carrier record first for the appropriate date ranges; if no values exist there, the system will look for the values defined in Commissions Setup. (PMG-578636)

Negative Commission Rates

When setting up commission rates in the system, users can now specify negative rates. This change applies to the house, supervisor and advisor levels. (PMG-831620)

Better Tracking of Rate Creation/Modification

Users can now more easily track when a commission rate was created and by whom, as well as which user last modified the rate. In commission rate lists and Dynamic Reports, the column layout can now be customized to add the Created By, Created On and Modified By columns from the Commission Rate table. (PMG-845959)

Policy Creation from Speed Receipts

Users can now create policy records directly from the Speed Receipts area of the system. To do so, open a speed receipt and, after running validation, select one or more transactions having a status of Policy Number Not Found. Then click the Options button and select Create Policy. (PMG-860518)

Rate Merge

Users can now merge two commission rate records into a single rate record. This feature is useful for cleaning up duplicate rates that exist for the same carrier, product and contract.

Open the Commission Rates List (Insurance > Rates), select a rate (this will be the "source" rate), and then select Menu > Merge Commission Rates. SmartOffice displays a list of "target" rates that the source rate data can be merged into (only those rates with the same contract, carrier, and product are listed). Select the target to complete the merge.

Any age/face/option combinations in the source rate that do not exist in the target rate are moved over. In addition, any pending cases linked to the source rate are also moved over to the target rate. (PMG-855023)

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)

• New columns for agency commission reports: In Agency Commission-category Dynamic Reports, users can now include columns from the Manual Commission Transactions and Speed Receipt tables. (PMG-848859)

• First commission payment in reports: In certain Commission-family Dynamic Reports, users can now display the very first commission payment on a policy, regardless of premium mode. To do so, configure the report's column layout to include the First Commission column from the Commission Amount Reconciliation table. (PMG-852559)

• Commission recalculation improvements: The commission recalculation process was enhanced to enable users to delete only those Open-status commissions that fall within the specified date range. Previously, recalculation deleted all Open-status commissions regardless of date. To use this feature, open the Commission Calculation dialog box and select the new Delete Open commissions in given date range option.

This option becomes available when the existing Recalculate option is selected. (PMG-860738)

• Commission note reports: A new Dynamic Report category called Commission Notes is available in the Notes report family. This new category enables users to report on notes entered for commission transactions on a policy's Expected Commissions List. (PMG-872278)

• Improved commission band selection: When determining which commission band from a rate to use when calculating commission on a policy, the system now makes its selection in this order:

1. Age + Face + State + Option

2. Age + Face + All States + Option

3. Age + Face + State + No Option

(PMG-875995)

• EbixEnterprise cheque reference column: A new EE Reference column is now available for use in advisor commission cheque Dynamic Reports and lists. This column displays the reference number assigned during the commission process in EbixEnterprise for those customers using SmartOffice and EbixEnterprise as an integrated solution. (PMG-876489, PMG-876570)

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)

Carrier Posting

• Expanded advisor payment list view: In a carrier posting record, users can now access an expanded view of the Advisor Payment List while viewing the details of an expected commission record. In the Commission Detail dialog box, select Menu > Show Advisor Commission List to open the payment list in a separate dialog box.

(PMG-875957)

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)

• Better validation of positive and negative commissions: Improvements were made to the Speed Receipts area of the system for positive and negative commissions. When a positive commission is matched with a negative one during validation, the system now displays the status "Projection Found but out of Date Range" for that transaction. (PMG-873347)

• Modified by/on columns for speed receipts: The Speed Receipt List can now track which user last modified each speed receipt record and when. Users with the appropriate rights can customize the list layout to add the Modified By and Modified On columns from the Speed Receipts table. These columns track changes to the General Information section of the speed receipt Detail content link. The columns are also available in Speed Receipt Entry-category Dynamic Reports. (PMG-874187)

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)

• When a product option was deleted from a product, the system was not properly unlinking the option from the commission rate and band. This issue was resolved. (PMG-833340)

• In the Edit Commission Rates dialog box, the Copy Band command was not working when the commission banding type was Excess Banding, Number of Members Banding or Premium Banding. This issue was resolved. (PMG-834120)

• When a column from the Product Extension table was included in a Projected Advisor Commission-category commission Dynamic Report, users who tried to export the report results were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-835307)

• On the advisor Smart Checks content link, users who tried to generate a PDF statement for a commission cheque entry were encountering an error. This issue was occurring when the advisor's contact record contained an ampersand (&) in the AlphaNum1 or AlphaNum2 field on the Add'l Personal content link under Miscellaneous Information. (PMG-835712)

• Two issues with the Copy Commission Rates command were resolved:

- When users opted to copy rates by product or contract from a blank rates list, nothing was happening. Now the system prompts users to select a source and target product or contract.

- When users opted to copy rates by product and reached the editable rates list, clicking the Cancel button was returning users to source/target selection instead of the commission rates list.

(PMG-839702)

• The columns Insured Name, Second Insured or Annuitant, Owner and Beneficiary from the Policy table were not displaying names in last name, first name format on the Commission List, the Advisor Payment List and in Commission-family Dynamic Reports. This issue was resolved. (PMG-839884)

• An issue with commission rates with a paid mode of As Paid with Months Advance was resolved. When a user modified the premium on a commission record that was not the first accumulated commission and then recalculated commission, the calculation was incorrect. (PMG-840903)

• Commissions were not recalculating from the rider side when the premium amount was changed at the rider level. The issue was occurring when the product's Accumulate Prem Comp field was set to Base + Rider and commissions were calculated for Base + Rider for a policy. This issue was resolved. (PMG-841759)

• An issue with Advisor/Agency-family Dynamic Reports in the Appointment, License, Contract and Advisor - Continuing Education categories was resolved. From the report results, users who opened a record to add a line of business to the Selected LOB list were finding that the Life - Variable option was missing. (PMG-842356)

• An issue with Advisor Commission-category Dynamic Reports was resolved. When a report included certain columns and filters, reconciled adjustment commissions were not appearing in the results. (PMG-843213)

• An issue with excess banding calculations that occurred when policy modal/annualized premium was more than the times target defined in commission rates was resolved. (PMG-844020)

• When Accumulate Prem Comp was set to Base + Rider at the product level, the system was calculating rider commissions based on the policy date and not the rider effective date. This issue was resolved. (PMG-844747)

• On the Detail content link of a commission rate record, users who clicked the name of the linked product were seeing a number of issues in the dialog box that opened, including an incorrect window title and several layout issues. These issues were resolved. (PMG-846144)

• In certain instances, when the projection validity date range in Commissions Setup was set to Merge and a policy had an advanced commission split, calculating commissions for the policy from Speed Receipts was incorrectly resulting in an amount of $0 retained by the house. This issue was resolved. (PMG-846245)

• An issue that was preventing users from adding a commission rate for a carrier-specific contract from the Policy Advisor List of a group policy record was resolved. (PMG-847005)

• After calculating commissions from the Illustration Import dialog box, users who then closed the Expected Commission List were ending up back in the policy record instead of the Commission Records from Illustration dialog box. This issue was resolved. (PMG-847427)

• An issue with advisor payment calculations was resolved. The issue was occurring when commissions were calculated with target and excess. When the commission transaction prior to the transaction that hit the target was deleted and then manually added, the advisor payment was being calculated on the full premium rather than the base portion. (PMG-850960)

• When an advanced commission split was linked to a policy, additional advisors (such as servicing and additional writing advisors) were not being selected automatically in some instances, even when they were present on the policy. This issue was resolved. (PMG-851072)

• When calculating commissions, users were encountering an error and a missing commission record when the target amount completed in a renewal year and renewal rates were missing. This issue was resolved. (PMG-851215)

• While editing multiple rates at once on the Commission Rates List, users who clicked the Save or OK button were seeing the message "You are not authorized to add a new record(s) or modify any record(s) in this module." This issue was resolved. (PMG-851506)

• When a user modified the primary contact on a policy (or removed and then re-selected the same primary contact), the Policy # column from the Interested Party table on the Advisor Payment List was becoming blank. This issue was resolved. (PMG-852290)

• When manually adding commission records, users were finding that the Paid-to/Next Due Date field was not being populated in these instances:

• The policy's premium mode was Single Pay.

• The policy's premium mode was Monthly, Annually, Quarterly, etc., and the commission record's type was Adjustment Commission.

(PMG-852844)

• When viewing the Smart Checks content link for an advisor residing in a child office, Enterprise View users who expected to see cheques listed were encountering a blank list instead. This issue was resolved by reverting a change made in SmartOffice 2019 Release 1 (PMG-837890) intended to address errors that occurred when users sorted the Advisor Commission Check List of a processed batch by office. (PMG-852984)

• Advisor/supervisor Fee-type commissions payable were being calculated incorrectly when the rates were set up using the Annualized First Year Only option. This issue was resolved. (PMG-856173)

• Bonus commissions payable to advisors were not being calculated when the House rate was set up as Base & Excess Commission and there was no Base commission. This issue was resolved. (PMG-857002)

• The system was not calculating commissions on policies when negative rates were involved, unless the rate was for Base commission. This issue was resolved. (PMG-858641)

• Several issues with rider commission calculations were resolved:

- When a rider's effective date fell after the policy date and the rider premium mode was Single Pay, rider commission was not being calculated.

- When a user added a policy rider with a product option, the rider rate associated with that option was not being selected automatically. The user had to rebuild the hierarchy to select the rate.

- From the rider Commission Hierarchy Detail dialog box, when a user selected a house/carrier rate and then clicked the Rate hyperlink (before clicking OK to save the rate), the Commission Bands section was appearing blank.

(PMG-861344)

• After a policy import, the contract was not being selected automatically on the primary advisor even when there was only one active contract. For this reason, the commission hierarchy was not being built, and commission records were not being calculated. This issue was resolved.  (PMG-863457)

• When customizing the column layouts of commission lists and Dynamic Reports, users with the CTM Advisor View or CTM Supervisor View license had access to columns in the Commission Amount Reconciliation table. This issue was resolved. (PMG-864915)

• When a rate was set up to pay a percentage of premium and a flat amount to the advisor, supervisor and house, the system was incorrectly calculating commissions to include the flat amount in the base commission for the advisor and supervisor. This issue was resolved. (PMG-868239)

• Several commission recalculation issues were resolved:

- When a user reconciled/processed the first few commission records for a policy, created a future premium entry and changed the policy date, the system was calculating the commission based on the old policy date.

- When commission was recalculated for the As Paid with Months Advance and the Annualized First Year Only rate options, the system was not checking whether the record was the first based on policy date. This was causing the system to accumulate based on the months-advance and annualized values instead of calculating per the premium mode.

- When a future premium payment was present and commission was recalculated only for the first year, the system was creating duplicate commission records.

- When a commission was reconciled/processed and the policy's premium mode was changed (e.g., from Quarterly to Monthly), recalculating the commission was resulting in the paid-to/next due date of the last reconciled/processed commission being updated per the current premium mode. In addition, changing the policy's premium mode and then recalculating commission was resulting in the next commission being calculated per the current premium mode, but the commission records of the two months in between were not being calculated.

(PMG-869033)

• While editing a policy's commission records using the Edit Multiple Records command, SmartCommissions for Advisors users were finding that certain values they entered for the Actual Amount Paid and Status fields were not being saved. This issue was resolved.  (PMG-872238)

• On the Commission Rates List, users who tried to view a rate's associated policies using the Menu > Related Policies command were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-872597)

• Sorting and grouping issues affecting Advisor Commission-category Dynamic Reports were resolved. (PMG-871688)

• When the Track Comm. option was cleared on a policy or rider, the system was logging errors related to that record in the Commission Error Log. This issue was resolved. In addition, when users try to calculate commissions for these records, the system now displays a message stating that the Track Comm. option is not selected. (PMG-878563)

• An issue that was preventing the Commission Rates List from opening to its full length was resolved. (PMG-879063)

• An error that occurred when users tried to print the results of All Commission Rates-category Dynamic Reports was resolved. (PMG-881261)

Batch Processing

• When sending an e-mail commission statement from a posted batch, users who entered formatted text for the e-mail body were finding that the formatting was being removed when recipients received the message. This issue was resolved. (PMG-794871)

• 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)

• In some instances, SmartOffice was returning an error when a user with Enterprise View turned on tried to sort the Advisor Commission Check List of a processed batch by office. This issue was resolved. (PMG-837890)

• From a posted batch, users who tried to e-mail commission statements to multiple advisors who had no e-mail address were seeing multiple Specify E-mail Body dialog boxes. This issue was resolved. (PMG-844934)

• An issue with unposting commission batches was resolved. The issue occurred when an advisor's cheque was put on hold in one batch because it was below the minimum cheque amount. When the cheque was later released in a second batch that was posted, users who tried to unpost the first batch were not seeing the message explaining that the other batch must be unposted first. In addition, the cheques generated in the second batch were being deleted. (PMG-845507)

• Commission statements sent to advisors from batches were displaying several text formatting issues related to special characters and line breaks. These issues were resolved. (PMG-848736)

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)

• In carrier posting records, license/contract/appointment checks were not working properly when they were set up at the carrier level only. This issue was resolved. (PMG-855308)

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)

• In speed receipt records, the Create Payments by Interest % of Policy command in the Commission Data list no longer runs calculations when the interest percentage for any advisor shown is zero. (PMG-834371)

• An issue was occurring when a user created a carrier posting from a speed receipt such that the commission transaction was automatically reconciled. In the commission transaction record, the Paid On date for the House commission payable was not being populated even though the transaction's status was Assumed Paid. This issue was resolved. (PMG-848338)

• Commission calculations performed for a policy from Speed Receipts were incorrect when the product included lump sum as a premium component to be accumulated against target premium. This issue was resolved. (PMG-850124)

• Two issues with calculating commissions or using current-value calculations from speed receipts were resolved:

- For Excess commissions in renewal years, the commission type was appearing as Base instead of Excess.

- For Excess commissions in first and renewal years, the advisor/supervisor commission was not being calculated. Only the house advisor payment was being calculated.

(PMG-864877)

• An issue with the matching algorithm for validating commission transactions in speed receipts was resolved. Users were getting a "Multiple Policies Found" error even when only one matching active policy existed in SmartOffice. (PMG-870848)

• Premium and commissionable premium values calculated from speed receipts were incorrect when there was a target amount and the target period was 99. This issue was resolved. (PMG-876932)

• In speed receipt records, the system was allowing users to reset commission transactions that had a status of Validated and Linked. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875046)

• In speed receipt records, when users manually linked a commission transaction to a policy using the Policy Selection command, the policy search results included group certificates. This issue was resolved. (PMG-875280)

• While validating transactions in speed receipts, the system was trying to match insurance products by policy type even when a product match was already found using the product code/name. This issue was resolved. (PMG-876209)

• In a speed receipt record, when a user reset an adjustment transaction, the transaction's link to the commission payable at the policy level was not being cleared. This issue was resolved. (PMG-876427)

• When commissions were calculated from a speed receipt, the premium and commissionable premium values for second-year commission were incorrect when the policy had a target amount and the target period was 99. This issue was resolved. (PMG-877312)

• An error that users were encountering when they tried to move reconciled transactions from Speed Receipts to Carrier Posting was resolved. (PMG-882457)

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 Accounts

• When the page layout of the investment Account Detail content link was customized to include the Account Position List portlet, users who tried to open an account record from the results of a Global Search were encountering an error. This issue was resolved. (PMG-849884)

• When a custom field was added to the layout of the Account Detail content link, users who updated the field and tried to save the change were encountering an error. This issue was resolved.

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)

• An issue affecting users who included activity Dynamic Reports on their home page dashboards was resolved. When a user viewed an activity's contact (by clicking the contact's name in the report), the contact's Investment Positions tab was displaying positions linked to another contact. (PMG-834400)

• An issue with the contact Investment Positions tab was resolved. When the position list layout contained the Account Name column from the Investment Accounts table, users who filtered the list to show only closed positions were encountering an error. (PMG-834752)

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)

• 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)

• An error that users were encountering when they ran the Performance Summary of Accounts PDF report was resolved. (PMG-842136)

• The Asset Allocation PDF report was displaying extra spaces and improper text wrapping for account numbers. These issues were resolved. (PMG-844447)

• An error that was occurring when users ran the Investment Position Summary PDF report at the household level was resolved. (PMG-849948)

• Several date range choices, such as "All Days in Future," were removed from the options for Investment- and Performance-category PDF Reports because the options are not applicable to those categories. (PMG-864363)

Investment Securities

• For users viewing the investment security Detail content link in French, several incorrect choices in the load type drop-down list were updated. Acquisition was changed to AFA, DSC was changed to FAD and a new FADR choice was added. (PMG-860190)

• In the Internet Quote Service utility, the Yahoo Quote Service option was still available, even though the service has been discontinued. This option was removed. (PMG-878681)

Performance Calculations

• Users who tried to run performance calculations were being incorrectly prompted to select accounts first. This issue was resolved. (PMG-828935)

Integrations and Data Services

Enhancements

General

• Latitude and longitude properties: Developers incorporating location-related features into their SmartOffice integrations now have access to two new properties of the Address object through the SmartIntegrator API: Latitude and Longitude. In addition, columns displaying this data are available for use in SmartOffice Pro lists and Dynamic Reports that display address information. (PMG-837545)

Investment Data Downloads

• 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)

• API enhancements: For integration developers, the Remarks property of the VendorCode object was exposed through the SmartIntegrator API. (PMG-823958)

• Searchable policy date: For developers accessing the SmartIntegrator API, the PolicyDate property of the Policy object is now searchable. (PMG-838792)

• Searchable opportunity properties: For developers, the Opportunity.CloseDate and OpportunityStageHistory.Timestamp properties are now searchable for applications accessing SmartOffice through the SmartIntegrator API. (PMG-853177)

• More searchable custom fields: For developers, the AlphaNum9 and Int1 properties of the CustomData object are now searchable through the SmartIntegrator API. (PMG-853585)

• API access to business County field: Developers can now access the business County field, located on business Detail content link, through the SmartIntegrator API. The field is accessible through the Business.County property. (PMG-855632)

• Appointment renewal date exposed: The RenewalDate property of the Appointments object is now accessible to external applications through the SmartIntegrator API. (PMG-868202)

Resolved Issues

SmartIntegrator and SmartXchange

• An issue that was preventing external applications from retrieving contact benefits data from SmartOffice through the SmartIntegrator API was resolved. (PMG-871005)

• A SmartIntegrator API issue that was preventing external applications from retrieving the ProductExt object in some instances was resolved. (PMG-878376)

SmartOffice Anywhere Changes

Featured Enhancements

Revamped Calendar and Task Screens

The calendar and task screens in SmartOffice Anywhere have been redesigned for improved usability on mobile devices.

• Calendar improvements: The calendar screen now displays a month view, with dots under those days containing activities.

Tap a day to display a list of the day's activities below the calendar. Tap any activity in the list to open a redesigned activity detail screen containing tabs for notes, participants, and letters/documents. Tap the plus (+) button above the calendar to open a redesigned new-activity screen featuring a more streamlined set of fields.

• Task improvements: The tasks screen now displays tasks for multiple days in the same list, grouped by date.

Click the filter button to sort the list by different criteria (e.g., client type, contact name, due date). In addition, users can now call the contact associated with a task directly from the list by tapping the phone icon. The new-task and task detail screens have also received the same redesign as those for calendar activities.

Note: Enterprise customers can retain the old calendar and task screens by setting the element (under the element) in the server config.xml file to false.

 (PMG-848451, PMG-884350)

Redesigned Settings Screen

The SmartOffice Anywhere settings screen now features improved readability and organization. To access the new settings screen, tap User on the navigation menu (you may need to tap More on the navigation menu to see this option).

The different sections are now accessible using labeled tabs across the top of the screen (to see additional tabs, swipe left or right on the tab row). In addition, field names are now larger and better aligned.

Note: Enterprise customers can retain the old settings screens by setting the element (under the element) in the server config.xml file to false.

 (PMG-848452, PMG-884350)

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)

Two-Step Authentication Code Generator

The latest version of the SmartOffice Anywhere app can generate one-time codes for users who have two-step authentication enabled in SmartOffice Pro (download the app for your Android or Apple iOS device).

First, enable the new option in SmartOffice Pro to receive one-time codes by mobile app (see Mobile App Option for Two-Step Authentication in SmartOffice Pro Changes). The next time you sign in to SmartOffice Pro and see the prompt asking for a code, open the SmartOffice Anywhere app and tap the Authenticate button in the bottom toolbar to generate your code,

(PMG-838587)

Support for Biometric Authentication

The SmartOffice Anywhere mobile app now supports biometric authentication for quicker sign-ins on both iOS and Android devices.

iOS users can sign in to SmartOffice Anywhere using Touch ID or Face ID (on devices that support those features) by selecting the Enable TouchID/FaceID Sign-In option on the app's sign-in screen.

Similarly, Android users can sign in using fingerprint authentication (on devices that support that feature) by selecting the Enable Fingerprint Sign-In option on the SmartOffice Anywhere sign-in screen.

Note: Because of this enhancement, support for the PIN sign-in method is being discontinued.

(PMG-800495)

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)

• New button bar on mobile app: A new row of buttons was added to the bottom of the SmartOffice Anywhere mobile app to accommodate new authentication features and to made commonly used functions easier to access.  

The buttons are:

• Back: Takes the user back to the previous screen he/she was viewing.

• SOA: Displays SmartOffice data.

• Authenticate: Generates a one-time code for users who use two-step authentication in SmartOffice Pro (see Mobile App Option for Two-Step Authentication).

• Refresh: Refreshes the data on the screen if the user is viewing SmartOffice data. If the user is generating a one-time code for two-step authentication, this button generates a new code.

• Logout: Signs the user out of the app.

• Activity and note detail from opportunities: While viewing an opportunity in SmartOffice Anywhere on a mobile device, a user can now tap or click any linked activity or note to view its details. (PMG-874148)

• Close probability on activity outcome screen: When using the activity outcome wizard in SmartOffice Anywhere, users can now enter the probability of closing the sale when the activity linked to an opportunity. The Close Probability field is visible on the Activity Disposition - Opportunity Details screen that appears when the Update Opportunity Details outcome option is selected.

(PMG-850123)

• Send activity outcome notes as alerts: Users can now tell SmartOffice Anywhere to send their activity outcome notes as alerts to other SmartOffice users. On the Activity Disposition screen, select Send Notes to Other Users and choose the users that should receive alerts. Then tap or click Send.

(PMG-854967)

• Advanced opportunity sorting/filtering for desktop: On desktops/laptops, SmartOffice Anywhere users now have more advanced filtering and sorting controls available on the Opportunities List. Click the funnel icon in the upper-right corner of the page to access them. Because these new controls include filtering by status, the existing Status drop-down list at the top of the Opportunities List has been removed. The list now displays all active opportunities owned by the current user by default. (PMG-854968, PMG-868294, PMG-868295)

• Actual Sale Amount field in opportunities: When an opportunity's status is updated to Sale Made, the Actual Sale Amount field now appears in the opportunity record as well as the activity outcome screen for any linked activities. (PMG-868296)

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)

• Including an apostrophe in SmartOffice Anywhere searches was producing unexpected results. This issue was resolved. (PMG-822490)

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

• An issue with the See Data For feature was resolved. In the user selection dialog box, selecting the Clear all selected items option was not clearing the check boxes next to selected users. (PMG-839489)

• SmartView for Advisors users were not seeing Delete buttons for alerts in SmartOffice Anywhere. This issue was resolved. (PMG-841982)

•  In cross-office proxy scenarios, when a participant from a different office was added to an activity, that user was unable to see the activity in the SmartOffice Anywhere calendar. This issue was resolved. (PMG-843508)

• Several issues with SmartOffice Anywhere access for SmartView for Advisors users were resolved. These issues made the user experience inconsistent between SmartOffice Anywhere and SmartOffice Pro for SmartView Case Status-format users:

- The visibility of presale records was being determined by the presale insured instead of the presale advisor.

- Users were able to view the presale records of users they proxied for in addition to their own presale records.

- Group policies were not visible unless they were in the Underwriting stage.

(PMG-850460)

• An issue in SmartOffice Anywhere that was causing the Opportunity Name and Process fields to overlap for Chrome users was resolved. (PMG-876025)

• Several issues with English text translation were resolved.