Recently active topics

My firm just transferred over to Smokeball. We have always been heavy on IMs, but the notifications on the Smokeball desktop are pretty annoying. Is there a way to get the pop-up notifications to go away?

I’m looking for advice on how to better streamline the Closing Statement functionality in Smokeball.Right now, I still rely on my own Excel sheets to calculate adjustments in the way that’s customary for attorneys in my area (Long Island, NY; NYC).My main challenges are: I can’t seem to change the calculation from 365 to 360 days (very minor issue) Smokeball’s rounding differs from local practice, so I end up having to calculate the adjustments separately and modify them manually. This defeats the purpose of being able to quickly balance with another attorney—bringing me right back to my customized Excel sheet. I haven’t found a way to create one fully functional Closing Statement without using multiple forms or manual edits. Ideally, I’d love to see more Smokeball template options for Closing Statements, Disbursement Sheets, and Net Funding Sheets (specific to New York and Upstate New York—though this may apply to other areas too). It would be great if these included a buyer/selle

Screenshot of new Matter - Next Tasks reportExciting news!Yesterday we released a new global report available to all users on our desktop app: Matter - Next Tasks. To find it, use the “Select report” dropdown on the Reports tab.This report will display all UNCOMPLETED tasks associated with matters with a due date falling within the range designated on the “Due” dropdown (All; This Week; Next Week; This Month; Next Month). You also have the option to group the report by several data points including Matter or Assignee. This is part of our expanded efforts to provide you with improved tools to manage your workflow and get more done faster! We’d love to hear your feedback on this!

Hi there, Smokeball doesn’t seem to integrate ‘fully’ a second attorney that is acting jointly into the Victorian precedent form on Smokeball. The section where the second attorney is to accept their role - those details are not completed.Is this being looked into?

So is there really not a way to download (say Court pleadings) from a website into Smokeball directly?  Or is it really that archaic that we just have to put them in a download folder then UPLOAD them into Smokeball?  On the same note then, is there really not a way to sync between file viewer (even OneDrive) and Smokeball?  Clio has this feature and you would thing a competetor program would also feature this skill?   So far, fairly frustrated with Smokeball and weve had it a week. 

Hi, is there a way to make appointments default to 1 hour instead of 30 minute time slots.Thank you,

I am having a lot of trouble at the moment with my matter layouts staying the same for me….open a matter, things are all over the place, not in the order they are meant to be, and in order of oldest to newest rather than newest to oldest...Also, sometimes it will just open on a random tab, such as messages, rather than just being in all files.   Is anyone else having this issue?

I sent a Zoom calendar invitation through my client portal to (i) the client and (ii) opposing counsel.  By sending the communication to the opposing counsel, did I accidentally open up (provide access to) all of the other files that are in the client portal to opposing counsel?

with the increasing number of snapdragon powered laptops and 2 in 1s and the seemingly decreasing number of intel powered PCs I am wondering if Smokeball has a plan to deal with this.I use the print to smokeball option quite a bit and losing it would be a pain.Surely smokeball will have to admit the increasing dsnapdragon installation base cannot be ignored…..

This is a post to discuss AI Billing to continue conversation begun in the Zoom Meeting. Below is the language we use in our Illinois family law contracts:We use document automation with templates as well as AI legal research, review, and writing products. These items assist us in the performance of our legal work, but they are not a substitute for our professional judgment. We may charge you legal fees for work products generated using these technologies on a minimum value billing basis as contained in the list below. The listed rates establish a minimum value billing which Attorney will charge for each item described. In other words, you will be charged the stated minimum value of the work even if actual Attorney time spent is less than that amount. If the Attorney spends more time on an item than the minimum, then the Attorney may charge for that time. For drafting documents, the minimum stated is for the initial drafting of the document and does not include such items as informatio

Has anyone started using the New Outlook and been able to link e-mails to matters to Smokeball?

Do you find it too easy to create duplicate contacts in Smokeball? Are you struggling to identify duplicates or find yourself putting the wrong contacts onto your Matters or Invoices because there are too many “versions” of the same contact? We want to hear from you! Smokeball is currently investigating methods of tidying up pre-existing duplicate contacts and ways of making it easier to prevent their creation in the first place. If you would like to discuss this topic with the Product team, please like this post or reach out to sam.king@smokeball.com and someone will be in touch with you. Thanks!

Is there a way to map a second client through either a Lead or Matter Form?We have created an updated Estate Planning Matter form that uses conditional logic to collect the spouse’s information, and we would like for it to be mapped to “Client 2” in the Matter so we don’t have to manually enter their information. Is this possible? Charles

Good morningWe were previously using Dropbox to share disclosure documents with other firms.  Can we use Smokeball to do this now?  If so, will the firm we are sharing the documents with have to have Smokeball installed as well?  

Can I switch from here to my Smokeball account? 

Is it possible to have the evergreen retainer feature on and apply to all NEW matters in a specific area of law without having to set it for each matter, individually? 

When I go into Messages, if i even seem to hover my mouse arrow near the message, it will mark it as read and move it down below to the read section. Is there a way to either make the period of time longer before it gets marked as read or to turn that feature off?

Did I miss the ‘heads up’ that the EPOA form was changing? What a mess!

We generally provide free initial consultations, but there are times that a client need an extended consultation or we may give some substantive suggestions during the consultation. On those occasions we will charge the (prospective) client for the time. However, in those situations the client is still prospective and hasn’t signed a legal service agreement yet. We create leads for prospective clients but only convert them to matters once we are hired and have a signed legal services agreement. I recently realized, however, that Smokeball will not let us bill from a lead. We have to convert the lead to a matter in order to create an invoice. I’m not too happy about that limit in Smokeball’s functionality, but I want to know how other firms deal with the situation. How are you creating an invoice and billing for consultations? I’d also like to request that Smokeball allow users to bill from a Lead (since you can attach time and expense entries to a Lead), but I’m not sure how to submit

Does anyone know if a client receives any sort of confirmation or notification when they make a payment towards their payment plan? We were billing recently and decided not to send bills to clients on a payment plan who have no new activity, but then we were wondering when they would be receiving communications from us about their balance and what that communication would look like. 

Is there a way to generate invoices for when a client has a balance due, but no new work is done?  Besides using the “reminders” tab??