We’re committed to keeping you fully up to speed with all of the features, enhancements and fixes we ship at Root. Here are all of the updates and improvements we shipped over the last month 🛠️

Features

We’ve introduced new features to improve flexibility and customisation:

• Configurable DOB requirement for beneficiaries: You can now configure whether the date of birth field is required for beneficiaries in both dashboard and Embed flows. This setting gives you more control over data capture. Read the docs .
• Embed session archiving: Embed sessions are now automatically archived once a policy is issued via Embed, helping keep session data clean and reducing clutter.
• Payment reversal communication: You can now configure customer notifications for payment reversals. A new standard event has been added under “Payment Events” in Customer notifications, making it easier to keep customers informed when a payment is reversed. Read the docs.
• Claims workflow updates: We’ve deployed the new claims assignment workflow in preparation for rollout. Final refinements from user testing are in progress, and we’ll share more details once it’s ready for release.
• AI-powered data export tooling: We’ve continued to refine the AI data export tool based on recent user testing. Updates include clearer visibility into available data fields, the ability to reselect data sets, personalised bot greetings, improved merge-variable handling, and automatic generation of the filters block to help complete templates even faster.
• Exploring new AI integration pathways: We’ve started laying the groundwork for new ways to connect AI tools with Root’s APIs. While still in early testing, this work could enable more flexible AI-powered interfaces and future integrations across different channels.
• AI-powered WhatsApp demo app: We’ve built an internal demo that runs product modules through WhatsApp using our new Model Control Plane (MCP). This is an early MVP designed to test how Root products can be delivered through conversational interfaces.

Platform Enhancements

• Performance Enhancements

  We’ve introduced enhancements to improve stability, efficiency, and visibility across Root:

  • Improved CLI messaging for product module publishing: The warning shown during rp publish has been updated to reflect changes in how product module versioning is managed. This provides clearer guidance aligned with the current structure of the Root Platform.
  • Improved traceability on quotes: We’ve added metadata to the quote creation endpoint to capture which user or API key created a quote, helping improve auditability and troubleshooting.
  • Restored Embed URL permissions for role management: Updated role permissions to allow access to the Embed URL creation functionality again. This ensures users can test the Embed | Management flow from the Workbench tab as intended.
  • Improved Embed demo URL: We’ve started building a new version of the Embed demo URL that better reflects how the integration will work in production. This aims to reduce confusion when testing Embed. The feature is not yet live, but foundational work is complete.
  • Improved product module debugging tools: We’ve upgraded our internal tooling to make it easier and faster to investigate product module issues. This helps us resolve support queries more efficiently and with greater accuracy.
  • Optimised WebSocket implementation: We’ve optimised our WebSocket implementation by eliminating unnecessary updates and implementing improved segmentation to ensure users only receive relevant information.
  • Improved policy update notifications: We’ve optimised WebSocket delivery for policy updates by limiting notifications to users actively viewing the relevant policy. A new organisation-wide event ensures visibility is maintained where necessary, while helping reduce unnecessary traffic.
  • Smarter webhook queueing: Disabled webhooks are now fully excluded from the queueing process, improving processing efficiency and reducing unnecessary load on the system.

• Billing Enhancements

  We’ve made several improvements to increase reliability, accuracy, and automation across Root’s billing processes.

  • Added new banks and branch codes: We’ve expanded the list of supported banks and branch codes across web, platform, and Embed to accommodate additional options.
  • New DebiCheck mandate endpoints: We’ve added support for creating, retrieving and updating DebiCheck mandates via the API, giving you more flexibility when managing mandates programmatically. Read the docs.
  • More frequent DebiCheck mandate processing: DebiCheck mandate batching and submission now run hourly during the day, improving turnaround times and reducing delays in mandate handling.
  • Faster billing job execution: We’ve significantly reduced the run times of key billing jobs related to debit orders and external payments. These changes improve the overall efficiency of billing operations across large policy volumes.
  • Simplified payment creation process: We’ve streamlined the payment creation logic to reduce complexity and improve maintainability across billing processes.
  • Enabled queue-driven premium debit job: Enabled the new enqueue-debit-premiums job, replacing the legacy version with a more performant, queue-driven process that reduces execution time.
  • Support for custom folder paths in Nedbank billing: We’ve built support for configuring custom S3 folder paths in Nedbank billing. This functionality is currently in testing and will help support more flexible file processing setups in future.
  • More frequent Nedbank response file processing: The schedule for processing Nedbank response files has been updated to run every two hours, enabling more responsive handling of payment feedback.
  • Support for payment data imports in new ledger: Journal entries are now written during payment imports, ensuring consistency between the legacy and new ledger systems when the new ledger is enabled. This forms part of our ongoing work on the new billing ledger, which remains in development.

• Bug fixes

  We’ve addressed key issues to improve system reliability:

  • Password protection for policy certificates: Policy certificates are now correctly password protected, addressing a previously reported issue with unsecured downloads.
  • Data export passphrase issue resolved: Fixed a bug where passphrases were being ignored when creating or updating data exports due to a mismatch in field naming.
  • Correct refund validation logic: We’ve fixed a bug that previously allowed refunds to exceed the total premiums received. Refunds are now validated to ensure they don’t surpass the amount actually paid.
  • Bug fix for updated claims blocks: Fixed an issue where background updates to claim blocks weren’t reflected correctly in the UI. This fix applies to the new claims detail view, which is still in development.
  • Resolved conflict error on archiving Embed sessions: Fixed a race condition that was causing intermittent conflict errors when archiving Embed sessions.
  • Fixed bug for API key creation: Resolved a bug that prevented API key creation in specific role configurations.
  • Added requestee type to product module: Introduced the product module requestee type to resolve a display issue where claim events were missing the "created by" field on the Root Dashboard.
  • Fixed onboarding tour links: Resolved an issue where the links in the onboarding flow were broken, ensuring new users can now access the intended support content.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, please share them with your Client Success Manager or submit them via the Root product roadmap to make sure we always know what’s top of mind for you.