General Q&A

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?

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? 

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?

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?

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…..

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

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?