General Q&A

Have a question for the Smokeball community? Can't find what you're looking for? Ask it here!

  • 199 Topics
  • 431 Replies
Ben
Rank
Ben
started this topic

How to use Smokeball Q&A

Welcome to Smokeball Q&A! What is this category for?Whether you are just beginning to move your firm over to Smokeball or you’re a veter...
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199 Topics

A
Anonymous
posted in General Q&A

Hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts - do you use them?

There’s been a few conversations here in the community about wanting to use keyboard shortcuts or hotkeys in Smokeball to quickly get something done without extra mouse clicks. For example, CTRL+S to save CTRL+F to find something are pretty common ones in other software.We know @atharkhan would love to use keyboard shortcuts when tagging emails and @JKibler to open and save a memo. Our own @Sara Sultan loves them, and can probably teach us all a thing or two!Do you use keyboard shortcuts too? What would use use them for?Answer our poll and put in your suggestions in the comments or send us a feature suggestion - we love hearing your thoughts.(and, if you’re wondering what’s currently possible in Smokeball, @leonzhou gave an example) 

0
A
5 months ago
S
Steph1104Contributor
asked in General Q&A

Adding Claim Number to Reports

I need to run reports which show claim numbers. Under Reports, I can see all the matter numbers but we need to add claim numbers and there is no place to do that. 

0
S
11 hours ago
M
MDollarContributor
asked in General Q&A

Saving statement emails in matter

We are new in Smokeball. I sent out a large batch of bills to clients and copied myself on these emails. It was my understanding that these emails, when sent, would automatically be saved into the matters for the bill recipients. I am not seeing them. Do I need to do something in set up? Am I not looking in the correct place? Do they not save automatically? 

0
M
13 hours ago
AJBattorney
AJBattorneyContributor
asked in General Q&A

Two-Way Automated Forms

Is there the ability to make a two way automated form?  The Personal Injury Client Intake Form is a great way to get basic information but I want to be able to “talk” to Smokeball so the information from the Form is uploaded.  I don’t want to have manually enter the responses from the client.  We used to meet face-to-face with clients and input the info to our form while talking to the person.  It would be great to email the client an intake form and upload the information when it was emailed back. Thanks in advance,Andrea

4
J
19 hours ago
Joe
JoeContributor
asked in General Q&A

Amount & Date Sung

Is there a field in Smokeball that I would be able to use to automate the amount we are suing for as well as the date of the breach.  For example:  YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear in the Civil Court of the City of New York, County of Richmond, at the office of the Clerk of the said Court at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Anywhere U.S.A. 12345 , New York, in the County of  Translyvania, City and State of New York, within the time provided by law as noted below and file your answer to the complaint with the Clerk: upon your failure to answer, judgment will be taken against you for the sum of ???????, with interest thereon from the ????????????????, together with the costs, disbursements and reasonable attorney’s fees in prosecution of this action.Where the question marks are, I would like for those to be inserted in various documents but come over from Smokeball.Thank you. 

1
Kalina
Smokeball Team
1 day ago
Joe
JoeContributor
asked in General Q&A

Automation

How do I take a word like “demand” and have it automatically make it plural?  For example, in the following document: PLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that pursuant to CPLR §3120(a), Plaintiff, BILLY RAY VALENTINE demands that Defendants', RANDOLPH DUKE and MORTIMER DUKE permit Plaintiff to read the crop report before it is released on the day of trading. ORPLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that pursuant to CPLR §3120(a), Plaintiff, BILLY RAY VALENTINE demands that Defendant, RANDOLPH DUKE permit Plaintiff to read the crop report before it is released on the day of trading.ORPLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that pursuant to CPLR §3120(a), Plaintiffs, BILLY RAY VALENTINE and LOUIS WINTHROP demands that Defendants, RANDOLPH DUKE and MORTIMER DUKE permit Plaintiff to read the crop report before it is released on the day of trading. ORPLEASE TAKE NOTICE, that pursuant to CPLR §3120(a), Plaintiffs, BILLY RAY VALENTINE and LOUIS WINTHROP demand that Defendant, RANDOLPH DUKE permit Plaintiff to read the crop report before it is rel

3
J
3 days ago
B
BeckyContributor
asked in General Q&A

Staff Permissions

How do you all set up attorneys and staff as far as billing permissions?

7
jsalter314
6 days ago
S
smcmahonContributor
asked in General Q&A

Customizing Dashboard

I am trying to customize my dashboard and for each widget I try to add I get the following message “There is no space to add this widget. Please create space on your dashboard and try again.” I have resized my current widgets. I am not sure what else to do. Is there a limit on how many widgets we can have on our dashboard? 

1
Sara Sultan
Community Manager
7 days ago
OCATTY
OCATTYContributor
asked in General Q&A

Client webinars

It looks like client on demand webinars have moved and do not appear to be available anywhere. They used to be available through the support tab. The references to webinars (it looks like they are called Events in Community) do not contain links to the on demand client webinars--at least all of the ones I tried did not work.

3
OCATTY
9 days ago
L
LindaLeeRegular
asked in General Q&A

Request for updated precedents

Can you please have all of the Separation Declarations in Family Law Financial Agreements updated in accordance with legislation to read:“OTHER PARTY NAME and I have separated and thereafter lived separately and apart for a continuous period of at least 12 months immediately before the time of signing this declaration;”

4
Jasmine
Smokeball Team
10 days ago
Joe
JoeContributor
asked in General Q&A

Keeping Track of Deadlines

Is there a feature in Smokeball that automatically populates if a time entry or no work has been done on a file for a particular length of time?

2
J
12 days ago
A
Adam VainausaksContributor
asked in General Q&A

Estate administration client as beneficiary

We have situations were a member of our firm is the appointed executor of the estate (or will be the administrator of the estate). The relevant matter types in Smokeball automatically assume that the executor or administrator is the client.In these situations, it is often a beneficiary or beneficiaries who are the client for the matter and the executor is actually a member of our firm.Is it possible to create an estate probate or administration matter where a beneficiary or a number of beneficiaries are the clients?

2
Tony Hastings
Smokeball Team
13 days ago
J
JKiblerFrequent Scribe
posted in General Q&A

Scam Solicitations on Web Contact Forms - Solutions?

This topic is tangential to Smokeball but it is law practice management / tech related.The Problem:I have used contact forms on our website for years to allow visitors to “request a consult”. In the last couple of years we have received an increasing number of scam consult requests. They have in common:Phone numbers that do not work; Unusual verbiage or stilted phrasing which suggests to me that the writer is speaking english as a second language; and, Scope of work related to large machinery/equipment/boat purchase or sale.Universally, these requests have a premise which sounds too good to be true but require them to quickly make a trust deposit by EFT and they request trust account information immediately. Previously I have screened these by asking for a valid driver’s license and working phone number. A recent scammer actually sent back what appeared to be a picture valid driver’s license but there were a number of characteristics which on close inspection did not seem genuine.Does

8
Ben
Smokeball Team
15 days ago
D
Donna PritchardContributor
asked in General Q&A

Doe Defendants

How do you automate adding Doe defendants to a pleading caption?  For example:  John Smith v. Betsy Jones, and Does 1 through 20, inclusive.  Under Matter Details, we would list John Smith as the plaintiff and Betsy Jones as the defendant for inputting to our pleading caption template, but we haven’t figured out a way to add the Doe defendants without adding them as another defendant. 

1
zac.meyer
Community Manager
15 days ago
R
Rob SimpsonContributor
asked in General Q&A

Custom Event List

How do I make it so the Defendant appears on the list when I run it there is a column that says other side but it is blank?

4
R
15 days ago
A
atiqueakhtarBeginner
asked in General Q&A

Smokeball Authentication not working after upgrading to Omniauth 2.0

We are using smokeball integration with our Rails application.We are using the following auth_host and redirect_url for the authentication step:AUTH_HOST = datastaging-auth.smokeball.comREDIRECT_URL = https://example.com/auth/smokeball/callbackalong with these, we have the required AUTHORIZATION_KEY, CLIENT_ID and AUTH_URL.The authentication works fine with Omniauth gem 1.9.2 and the following login page loads: The authentication breaks with Omniauth gem 2.0.0 and the following error page loads: We would be obliged if anyone from the community can help us here in understanding the reason behind this issue and can help us resolve this.

1
Ben
Smokeball Team
16 days ago
Selby
Smokeball Team
SelbySmokeball Team
published in General Q&A

NSW Conveyancers and Property Lawyers: Updates on NSW Contract for Sale and Purchase of Land and Cooling Off Notice

Hi NSW Conveyancers and Property Lawyers, We would like to inform you that the NSW Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land 2019 Edition (Pages 1 to 3) is no longer available on our Precedent Library. You may continue to use the NSW Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Land 2022 Edition (Pages 1 to 4) that has been made available since September 2022.Our Cooling Off Notice has also been updated to reflect the changes in the Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2022. These changes are made as the transitional period between 1 September 2022 - 28 February 2023 after the commencement of the Conveyancing (Sale of Land) Regulation 2022 has ended.If you have any questions, feel free to reply below or contact us via Support.

440
Selby
Smokeball Team
17 days ago
J
jmwirthContributor
asked in General Q&A

Saving a letter opened from one matter to another matter while open

I frequently open a word document from one matter, edit it and otherwise change its content specific to another matter and then go to save it to the second matter, but the “save” and “save as” commands default to the matter from which it was opened and I cannot figure out how to exit the default destination so that the document can be saved directly to the second matter.  I realize I should probably think ahead and copy the document to the second matter before opening it, but I usually don’t remember to do so until after the document is opened and the editing has begun.  Is there a way to save a document once it’s been opened and edited to a matter that is not the one from which the document was opened?

1
J
18 days ago
T
TobiContributor
asked in General Q&A

Notifications

Is there an audible notification for tasks and or communicate messages?  

1
J
18 days ago
M
Martha.lContributor
asked in General Q&A

Export Billing Reports

Can someone please tell me how would you export billing data for financial accounting purposes?

3
Sara Sultan
Community Manager
20 days ago
Lucy Byrne
Smokeball Team
Lucy ByrneSmokeball Team
published in General Q&A

Queensland Conveyancers: important update on your Lexon insurance precedents

Hi Queensland Conveyancers and Property Lawyers,As you know, the new REIQ Contract for Sale of Land is now available. Because of this we are in the process of making substantive changes to the Lexon Insurance precedents available in your Smokeball Precedent Library. Here’s what you need to knowAll non-automated documents have been updated and are available for use in the Precedent Library right now. We have completed 100 out of the 176 automated precedents in the Smokeball Library. Each new precedent is published as soon as it’s ready for use. If you can see the precedent, then it’s up to date.   Prior versions of the automated precedents are not available. Please use a non-automated version if your automated precedent is unavailable or check back in 24-48 hours for the updated version. Using these documents in workflows, tasks and matter stagesUpdated documents should automatically re-map to any matter stage or workflow that uses it. So you won’t need to change any of your automations

521
Lucy Byrne
Smokeball Team
21 days ago
B
Bryanp9Contributor
asked in General Q&A

File sharing between staff

Hi team, we usually share an excel tracking list or word file over google drive, where we can freely edit and update, just wonder if we have that function on Smokeball, that can share a folder between the staff

2
J
23 days ago
M
MaraBrooksContributor
asked in General Q&A

Where do you input opposing counsel info?

Hi, I’m trying to find where you can input contact details and other information for opposing counsel in a case and I don’t see that option anywhere. It’s generally one of the first things you enter with case management software so I’m a little puzzled! 

2
Ben
Smokeball Team
1 month ago
E
etorresRegular
asked in General Q&A

Payment plans- failed payment

Hello! I recently started setting up payment plans on smokeball billing for the contacts. So far, I have set up maybe 3. I was reviewing one particular contact and notice that a payment had failed for a past month (November) . I did not get an email notifying me of the failed payment. Does anyone know if there is a setting where I can get an email with the details of failed payments for scheduled payment plans? Thanks!

3
Ben
Smokeball Team
1 month ago
C
CarolTobLawContributor
asked in General Q&A

Linking multiple matters to the same incident in PI law

In PI law, auto accidents in particular, each client must have their own matter. I need a way to indicate or link those that are involved in the same traffic accident. Any suggestions how to accomplish this?

1
Sara Sultan
Community Manager
1 month ago

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