General Q&A

Hi community and support team,Are there any plans to open additional fields to the API? I would like to connect Smokeball client deposit transactions to the trust bank account in Xero.Currently, we manually create a contact and assign a general ledger account to each transaction in Xero. Is there a best practice process we should adopt?Thanks,Daniel

Is Smokeball still supporting the Android phone app? I don’t recall receiving an update in a while, and have experienced some cliches with it. Anyone have any information on this?Peace

I want to start charging people a fee if they FTA to a free consult or cancel less than 24 hours ahead of time. Can you put a “hold” on a person's card for this purpose with SB Pay? 

Hello Community! I am with a firm that is newly adopting Smokeball. We are still planning to use Tabs3 for the short term, while we get up to speed, and will likely be switching to Quickbooks later to make the time importing easier.In the short term, we will be exporting time entries from Smokeball (where all attorneys will be tracking their time) and then importing it into Tabs3, where we will do our billing and invoicing.Are there any other firms that currently do this? I would love to connect with you just to understand how to do this process smoothly and easily. Any tips would be appreciated.

Good afternoon, can someone please tell me how I can run a report of all my attorney time to get an annual total of billable time and non-billable time in one report without any dicounts or write offs?  I have tried to run this report under “Billed Fees & Expenses” and “Time Entries” and none of the numbers I get add up to what my dashboard says for billable time.  It appears I have to run two reports?  Or maybe I can only run an annual total for hours that have been billed?  What if you are holding a bill?I used to be able to do this in the firms previous software, but for some reason I am having trouble.   I just want something that tells me how many total billable hours (whether invoiced or not) and total administrative (non-billable) hours I have done this year.  I just want raw numbers initially, without breaking out what was written off, what was invoiced, what was collected. Thanks so much. 

Our Firm currently uses the Microsoft 365 suite family and Smokeball. In the past my attorney has been able to synchronize his Outlook calendar with his calendar on Smokeball. Recently, in scheduling meetings for him using Smokeball, his Outlook calendar has not been syncing properly with Smokeball causing him to miss meetings with clients. Can you please advise as to how we can fix this issue? Thanks,Dorian Coehins

Is there any way to add a co-accused to a matter? 

I have looked but have not been able to find anything to answers my question. Is there a way to have a “knowledge base” of non-matter materials that Archie can access while in a matter. For example, The United States Sentencing Guidelines are 620 pages long in the PDF version. I would rather not add this document to every matter, but I would love to be able to access it while using Archie for case specific questions. This would go for the US Code and state criminal laws.  Is this already a thing and I am simply missing it? ThanksJim

Smokeball is taking a hard look at how we can improve functionality around permissions. Do you have any ideas, requests, or hot takes surrounding this topic? We want to talk to you! Please respond to this post with your feedback or priority items that you want to see expanded in the permissions realm, or let us know if you would be open to talking with us more about this subject. Thanks in advance!

Hello,I have an issue with a trust receipt not showing up on my end of month reconciliation. How can I fix?

Besides inputting the information into the discovery details area - how is this helping us?  What is it doing?  It doesn’t notify us of anything.  Can it notify us what is happening? 

Hello All! We are a CO estate planning firm and offer a membership for our trust-based clients. As part of that membership, the client receives a report detailing all their assets (that we're aware of) and how we recommend they be aligned with their trust (ownership, beneficiaries, etc.). We send them that report every year so that they can update us on any changes. I’m a new user to Smokeball, and I’m excited to put that Asset Tracking Details section to use! I wanted to ask the community if you are doing something similar with your clients, and if you have any tips and tricks for me as I set this up. My vision is to have a word template report ready to go with all the various types of assets a client could have, I fill in the asset details section in SB, and all that data ends up in my report, ready for the client. I’m sure I’ll have to delete a few unused rows (if I build out ten cash account slots and they only have two). But is there a better way to do this? I appreciate your t

Hey, would like to open the conversation about trust minimums and evergreen retainers. Can you all share your feedback? Id love to hear how others are doing, whether good or bad :)

We are in the midst of watching the training videos.  Is there a place or link to clink on to print the information out (like an instructional booklet) instead of going into each section?

All of a sudden, I can't get to the smokeball web app - i.e. billing - through the browser on my mobile phone. I have tried logging in to several locations, and all (except community) redirect me to the mobile app. Is there anything I can do to prevent this, other than uninstalling the mobile app? Thank you,Maria

We often have expense entries that need to be supported by a receipt or invoice. We’ve seen that in the Smokeball web browser option, there’s an “attach file” option. However, we can’t find a similar option when entering expenses in Smokeball on our desktop application. Is there a way to attach files (receipts, invoices, etc.) to expenses in the desktop Smokeball app?

Small thing - but to save me time could this document be edited so that it prints on one side of a piece of A4 paper.

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

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?

Good Morning: I understand that the Smokeball software is available for free to Texas State Bar attorneys.  How do I download the software? Laura McClaryLegal Assistant to Kevin M. Fuller9021 Hwy 69SHuntington, TX 75949(409) 835-2700 

We have created Lead Intake forms for use on our website, and we have created one for our internal use for creating new leads from phone calls. The problem is that once the form has been completed, it does not “reset” for future use, or if we partially fill it out without submitting, the filled out fields remain until manually deleted. Is there a way to create a Lead Intake form that can be reused on the same computer without having to remember to open an Incognito Tab every time?

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!

I know you can save a client credit card to a contact and you can use this card to pay invoices with add a payment. And you can use this card for a payment plan. But we’re transitioning to evergreen clients. And I can’t find a way to use a saved card in Smokeball to make a deposit to trust. As we increase the number of evergreen clients, it’s becoming an intensive process to manually type in each credit card each time to charge the card. 

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?