SmartScheduler 2026.2 Build 0000 (10 September 2026)
SmartScheduler 2026.2 is the new generation of Smart Schedule. The program has been rebuilt from the ground up and replaces Smart Schedule 2023.3. It keeps the same job — take SQL Server backups on a timetable — and adds cloud upload, email alerts, a dashboard and reporting.
The old Smart Schedule is not removed when you install this version. Both can sit on the same PC, so a site can move over at its own pace.
New Enhancement List
New Product — SmartScheduler V2
A complete rewrite of Smart Schedule. Four screens instead of one window: Dashboard, Schedules, History and Settings. The program sits in the system tray and keeps running in the background, so backups still happen when the window is closed.
Screen Affected (New)
• Installs to C:\SmartAcc\SmartScheduler, the same place as our other products.
• Nothing else needs to be installed first. The .NET 8 runtime is inside the installer, so there is no separate .NET Framework 4.6 step like the old version needed.
• Can start automatically with Windows and go straight to the tray after login.
• Three appearance choices: Default Blue, Dark, and Seasonal Accent.
Note: SmartScheduler V2 is a separate program from Smart Schedule 2023.3. Installing it does not remove or change the old one.
New Module — Import from the Old Smart Schedule
A wizard reads the schedules and history out of an existing Smart Schedule installation and brings them into the new program, so a site does not have to key everything in again.
Screen Affected (New)
• Settings → Tools → Import from old SmartScheduler (V1)
• Enter the old SQL Server connection, then Scan source to see what will be brought over before anything is written.
• The preview shows how many schedules and log records were found, how many will be imported, and how many were already imported by an earlier run.
• Running it twice is safe — records already imported are skipped, not duplicated.
• A summary at the end shows what was imported, what was skipped, and any warnings.
New Module — Upload Backups to Smart Storage Platform (SSP)
Backups can now be sent to SSP automatically as soon as they finish, so a copy is off-site without anybody carrying a hard disk.
Screen Affected (New)
• Settings → SSP connections
• Schedule editor → Upload to SSP
• Connect to SSP with the customer's email and password. An environment picker fills in the staging or production address, so nobody has to type a URL.
• More than one connection can be saved. Each has a Test button showing Passed or Failed with the date of the last test, and an Active switch. A connection still used by a schedule cannot be switched off by accident.
• Passwords and tokens are encrypted on the machine — they are never shown again after saving.
• Each schedule chooses which connection to upload to.
• Options per schedule: delete the local backup after a successful upload, and what to do when a file of the same name is already in SSP.
• Weekly rotation — keep one backup per weekday and overwrite the rest, instead of piling up a new copy every day until the space runs out. The number of days is adjustable from 1 to 7.
New Module — Email Alerts
The program can email staff when a backup fails, so a problem is noticed the same day instead of at the next restore.
Screen Affected (New)
• Settings → Email
• One or more recipient addresses, separated by commas, semicolons or new lines.
• SmartAcc mail server settings are already filled in — normally nothing needs to be typed.
• A customer who prefers to send through their own mail server can enter it instead.
• A test email must succeed before notifications can be switched on, so a wrong setting is caught immediately rather than on the day of a real failure.
• Notifications can be switched off and the recipient list cleared at any time.
New Module — SSP Health Alerts
Two warnings that arrive by email before they become a problem.
Screen Affected (New)
• Settings → SSP health monitoring
• Storage usage — an email when the customer's SSP space reaches a set percentage. The default is 80%, adjustable, and 0 turns it off.
• Licence expiry — a daily reminder as the SSP licence approaches its expiry date, until it is renewed.
New Module — Dashboard, History and Reporting
Screen Affected (New)
• Dashboard
• History
• Settings → Execution log retention
• Dashboard shows total schedules, how many are active, runs today, issues today, and a Schedule health list with problems shown first. Charts cover the run result mix, recent backup durations and recent backup sizes. The date range can be changed and is remembered.
• History lists every run with database, start time, duration, backup size, ZIP size, upload state and the stage a failure happened in — Backup, Compression, Upload, Verification and so on.
• View on any row opens the full error text in a window that can be copied, instead of a message cut short in a column.
• Retry upload on a failed row sends the existing backup again without running the whole backup a second time.
• Export the history to Excel or PDF for a customer or a manager.
• Both screens refresh themselves while a job is running, so progress is visible without clicking Refresh.
• Old log records are cleaned up automatically: 30 days, 90 days, a custom number, or keep forever.
New Module — Upload Folder Task
A schedule no longer has to be a database backup. It can also send a folder of files to SSP on a timetable — for example scanned invoices or report output.
Screen Affected (New)
• Schedule editor → Task type
• Choose the source folder and which files to send: every file, a wildcard such as *Invoice* or report?.pdf, or one exact file name. Examples are shown in the dialog.
• Options to replace a file already in SSP with the same name, and to delete the source file after a successful upload.
Enhancement — Backups for Very Large Databases
The backup engine was rebuilt for databases far bigger than the old version handled, and has been run against databases in the 138 GB to 300 GB range.
Screen Affected
• Schedule editor
• A live progress bar during the backup and during the upload, rather than a window that appears frozen for an hour.
• Free disk space is checked before the backup starts, so a job fails early with a clear message instead of filling the drive and stopping halfway.
• SQL Server's own compression is on by default, and the compression method follows the SQL Server version, using the newer ZSTD algorithm on SQL Server 2025 and later.
• An optional ZIP after the backup, with the choice to delete the .bak once the ZIP is made.
• Check the backup after it is created verifies the backup file is readable before it is treated as a success.
• Backups can go into subfolders by day of the week, add the date and time to the file name, keep a rolling set of recent backups, or append into one file.
Enhancement — The Program Keeps Its Own Data
Smart Schedule used to keep its schedules and history inside the SQL Server it was backing up. The new version keeps them in its own small file next to the program.
Screen Affected
• Settings → Database connections
• Settings → Backup / restore schedule configuration
• On first launch the program creates its own database automatically. SSMS is not needed and nobody has to run a script.
• The SQL Server being backed up is now only a target — the program does not add tables to it.
• Schedules can be exported to a file and imported again, for moving to another PC or for keeping a copy of the setup.
Enhancement — Licence
Screen Affected
• Settings → SmartScheduler access
• SmartScheduler is included free with any active SmartAcc subscription — DynaMod, TouchPOS and the rest all count. No separate purchase.
• A machine with more than one SmartAcc product licence is handled properly; the program picks the one with the longest cover.
• Settings shows the registered company, the access summary and the renewal contact. No serial numbers are displayed.
• An expired cover date or a licence-reader problem no longer locks the user out of the program.
Enhancement — Schedule Setup
Screen Affected
• Schedules
• Schedule editor
• Settings → Job execution
• Run at a fixed time, or repeat every N hours through the day.
• Any combination of days of the week.
• Select several schedules at once, with a confirmation before deleting.
• Required fields are marked with a red asterisk.
• Limit simultaneous jobs so two large backups do not run at the same time and slow the server; the maximum is adjustable.
Enhancement — Upload Reliability
Long uploads over a weak line used to have to start again from the beginning. They no longer do.
Screen Affected
• History
• Dashboard
• Large backups go straight to cloud storage in parts instead of passing through a staging server, which is faster and removes a size limit.
• The part size is worked out from the file size, so a very large backup does not hit the limit on the number of parts.
• An interrupted upload continues from where it stopped.
• If the server times out at the end of an upload, the program checks whether the file actually arrived instead of assuming it failed and sending it all again.
• An upload that was cut off by a restart or a crash is shown as failed and can be retried, rather than sitting on a progress bar that never moves.
Enhancement — Clean Shutdown and Licence Key Agent Handling
SmartScheduler now closes properly when another program asks it to close — SmartUpdater before an update, Task Manager's End task, or a Windows shutdown or log-off. Before this version the request was ignored and SmartUpdater had to force the program closed after ten seconds.
When SmartScheduler stops, it also ends the licence key agent (Ekag20nt.exe) that the licence library started from the SmartScheduler folder. Previously that agent kept running after the program closed and held on to its own file, which made the next update fail with "being used by another process". Agents belonging to other SmartAcc products on the same PC are not touched.
The title-bar X still keeps SmartScheduler running in the system tray.
Application Affected
• SmartScheduler application shell. No change to how backups run.
Enhancement — Updates through SmartUpdater
Screen Affected
• Settings → About → Check for updates
• Check for updates opens SmartUpdater. SmartScheduler keeps running; SmartUpdater closes it only when an update is found and the user confirms it. Previously the program closed itself even when there was no update, which quietly stopped scheduled backups.
• The version and build are passed to SmartUpdater correctly, so a move to a newer version is offered as it should be.
• Update packages are published under SmartScheduler on the release server.
Enhancement — Single Copy per PC
Starting SmartScheduler twice now shows "SmartScheduler is already running for this Windows user" and points to the tray icon, instead of opening a second copy that would run the same schedules twice.
Application Affected
• SmartScheduler application shell. No change to how backups run.
Closed Issues List
• Fixed backup failing with SQL Server error 3023 when both "overwrite" and "append" options applied to the same file. The two settings are no longer sent together.
• Fixed the upload progress bar sticking at a fixed percentage, and runs interrupted by a restart or crash staying stuck on "Running" forever. Such runs are now settled as failed on the next start, with the duration filled in, and can be retried.
• Fixed the Settings screen reporting "(not configured)" for the scheduler database on a fresh installation, even though the program was working normally.
• Fixed SmartScheduler closing itself when Check for updates was pressed, which left backups not running until somebody noticed the tray icon was gone.
• Fixed the SSP connections list not refreshing after a connection was deleted or tested.
• Fixed upload error messages being cut off at the first line break, hiding the useful part of the message.
• Fixed the licence reader failing to load on some machines, which showed a licence error on a properly licensed PC.
• Fixed the tray icon not appearing on some machines, with no message to say why.
• Fixed two schedule dialogs opening from one click.
• Fixed clearing the history failing when a run had backup files recorded against it.
• Fixed the schedule and settings grids not scrolling sideways on a narrow window, which hid columns on smaller screens.
• Fixed two copies of the scheduler starting inside the program, which could run a job twice.
Important Notes for Upgrade
1. New installations use SmartSchedulerSetup-2026.2.msi. It installs to C:\SmartAcc\SmartScheduler and needs no other software installed first.
2. The old Smart Schedule 2023.3 is not removed. SmartScheduler V2 is a separate program and the two can run on the same PC. Use the import wizard to bring the old schedules across, then switch the old one off once the new schedules have run successfully.
3. Settings and history are kept when upgrading. The installer does not overwrite the program's own database or its connection settings.
4. Sites already on 2026.1 Build 0000 must be moved with the MSI, not through SmartUpdater. On that build the licence key agent holds a file open and the update cannot replace it. From 2026.2 onwards updating through SmartUpdater works normally.
5. SmartUpdater 2026.2 or later is recommended, as it reads the new release server. Older updaters still work through the file server.
6. Licence: any active SmartAcc subscription enables SmartScheduler. Nothing extra to buy and no key to enter — the program reads the licence already on the machine.
7. Antivirus: the program writes backup files and starts SQL Server backups. On a locked-down PC, allow C:\SmartAcc\SmartScheduler if backups fail to write.
SmartScheduler 2026.2
Dashboard
• Total schedules, active schedules, runs today, issues today
• Schedule health list (problems first) — last run, last success, next run, state
• Run distribution chart
• Recent successful durations
• Recent successful output sizes
• Date range filter, remembered between sessions
• Live refresh while a job is running
Schedules
• Create, edit, activate and deactivate schedules
• Multi-select with confirmation before delete
• Task type: Database backup, Upload folder
• Schedule timing: fixed time, or every N hours
• Day-of-week selection (weekdays, weekend, or any combination)
Schedule Editor — Database Backup
• Database
• Backup folder
• Backup file name
• Description
• Add the date and time to each backup file name
• Organise into subfolders by day of week
• Add new backups into the existing file (append)
• Keep a rolling set of recent backups (1 to 7 days)
• Reduce the backup file size, with version-aware compression method
• Create a ZIP file after the backup
• Delete the .bak file after the ZIP is created
• Check the backup after it is created
Schedule Editor — Upload to SSP
• SSP connection
• Delete the local backup after a successful upload
• When a file is already in SSP (replace or keep both)
• Weekly rotation and overwrite window
Schedule Editor — Upload Folder
• Source folder
• Which files should be uploaded: every file in the folder, wildcard pattern, or exact file name
• Replace an existing file when the name is the same
• Delete the source file after a successful upload
History
• Log ID, Job ID, Database, Started, Duration
• Backup size, ZIP size
• Status, Upload state, Stage
• View full error details (copyable)
• Retry upload
• Export to Excel or PDF (selectable rows)
• Clear history
Settings — General
• Appearance: Default Blue, Dark, Seasonal Accent
• Start with Windows (boot straight to tray after login)
• Auto-refresh History and Dashboard while a job runs
• Execution log retention: 30 days, 90 days, custom, or keep forever
• Job execution: limit simultaneous jobs, maximum active jobs
Settings — Database Connections
• Scheduler database (the program's own file)
• Backup target server (SQL Server), with an edit dialog
Settings — SSP Connections
• Add connection: connection name, description, environment, SSP base URL, email, password, device / token name
• Test, with Passed or Failed result and last-tested date
• Active toggle
• Remove, with confirmation
Settings — Email
• Enable email notifications
• Recipient email addresses
• Send test email (required before enabling)
• Use my own mail server: mail server, port, TLS / STARTTLS, sign-in user, sign-in password, send-from address
Settings — SSP Health Monitoring
• Warn when storage reaches a chosen percentage (default 80, 0 turns it off)
• Licence expiry reminders (daily)
Settings — Tools
• Import from old SmartScheduler (V1) — migration wizard
• Export schedule configuration
• Import schedule configuration
Settings — About
• Product, version, build
• Config file path
• Licence: registered company, access summary, renewal contact (email, phone, website)
• Check for updates, with the date of the last check