General Q&A

I am not sure what is the best type of matter to open a new file for.  I was just appointed by the Court as the Receiver in a divorce action.  I am not representing the plaintiff, defendant or any party.  Rather, I am acting as the eyes and hears for the court.  What would be the best option to choose when opening this matter in Smokeball?  Thank you.

When an associate runs their “weekly status report,” two matters he works on don’t show up. He is tagged on both matters, and has recorded billable time on the cases. They also don’t show up when he runs a “matter-full list” with his tags. Why are these cases not included, and what can we do to ensure they are included moving forward? Thank you!

Has anyone else been unable to sign onto Smokeball on a mobile device (cell phone)?

Is there a way to combine contacts? For some reason clients have been entered multiple times (probably by different staff members) so we have more than one contact set up for the same person. Is there a way to combine them? I don’t want to delete them because they are associated with matters.

Is there a way to copy emails such that they are in more than one folder or more than one matter, like you can do with documents? I understand that you can re-tag an email such that it will move to a different matter, but what if an email covers more than one matter and you want it assigned to both matters.  Example - email is from client with two separate matters and needs to be attached to both Matter 1 and Matter 2 Also, what if you want the email assigned to a specific subfolder?  For example - email includes a settlement offer from opposing counsel and you would like it to be saved in the Settlement subfolder   You can do this with documents so easily - I would think you should be able to do the same with emails.

I just noticed a new feature: Smokeball Messenger includes an option to summarize a conversation using Artificial Intelligence. I used that feature and found a short summary and an action item list. Checking with a tech savvy client, he said that the summary is not viewable to the client. This feature could be handy. Anyone else using it? 

Is there a way to add another field/s under addressee details for invoicing templates? For instance, I want to direct an invoice to a client representative, rather than the organisation as a whole.  See example below of what we currently have populating our template:  Organisation NameOrganisation Address I want to direct our invoice to perhaps the account department and a specific account manager, like below: Account ManagerOrganisation DepartmentOrganisation NameOrganisation Address I’ve attempted to rectify this before by changing the debtor, but for reporting/billing purposes its not ideal as SB lists the debtor as the account manager, rather than the organisation as a whole. It also can get confusing if the account manager moves on from the organisation.  Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks!  

My task list displaying on the dashboard is too long to be useful.  I prioritize my tasks by adding a “Priority” category to the tasks that are my top priority for that day.  I can sort the tasks by category on the Tasks tab (so I can put my 3-4 priority tasks at the top).  Is there a way to sort tasks displayed on the dashboard by category?Any other ideas for highlighting priority tasks?  Thanks.

Is the a way to run a report on which clients need to replenish their evergreen retainers?  If not, what about a print feature for the Evergreen screen?   Unfortunately, whenever you invoice a client and include an evergreen request, the invoice is considered “paid” only if they pay their past due balance and does not flag the user that they have not paid their evergreen.

Hi,How do I add my precedent to SB please?

Is there a way to change the default Billing Type when opening a new matter?  Right now our default is fixed and I would like to change it to Time Based.

How does another firm you send files to via messages (formerly communicate) download all files at once, instead of one at a time? 

Are there step by step instructions to provide to non smokeball users on downloading documents from messages/the communicate feature?  We get a lot of questions from other firms and don’t have a good clear answer to provide to them. 

I have set up dashboard to view billing and hours for the week/month.Is there a way to see other staff’s billing and hours?

Hi,How can I correct the letter to remove the underscore from our PO Box address?

7+ years Smokeball small solo firm here.About 99% of our firm’s work is under the practices of:Professional Responsibility EthicsAs smokeball adds new great functionality, we are seeing that practice areas don’t include these two important categories. Example is the new “Intake Forms” where “Select Practice Area” has no category that would describe these two areas above.Ideally we would like to see these two practice areas added across the board for any functionality that requires “Selecting Practice Area”.How to other firms handle this situation? I’ve searched the community and cannot find any relevant material.Is there a workaround or can Smokeball developers add this to the system?Thank you,Dan AustinBrotmanLaw / US  

Is there a way to add this disclaimer to the new Intake Form templates?This request does not establish a client/attorney relationship. Thank you,Dan Austin / BrotmanLaw

Hi  Team,We have recently adopted Smokeball. The real-time time tracking through the timers has a few limitations. It would be great if you could add the following:Show the total amount of time tracked on the list of the timers. At the moment you can’t see how much time you have recorded until after you add the time. Being able to see the total time throughout the day is really handy and has always helped me encourage productivity without having to finalise the time entries, as you may jump back and forth between different tasks so it is not practical to add time to SB all the time. Also a lot of firms have daily targets. The ability to manually adjust the time tracked through the timers. We are humans. There will be situations where eg we go away from the desk to grab a coffee but forget to stop the timer, or reversely, we stop the timer but then we get back to work and forget to restart

I have a single trust deposit that needs to be split over 2 separate matters, how do I issue this trust receipt?

Wondering if there is a Power and Estates Register within the Safe Custody Register? Thanks.

Hi thereI need to report at the end of each month how much is in WIP (unbilled time & fees), however, if I bring up the “Unbilled Time & Fees” report, it only shows the figures as at today’s date.For example, today is the 17th of the month, I have only just returned from leave, so was unable to print the report as at 30th of last month.How can I obtain the figure as at the end of last month?  Can you please insert a “date” feature, so that we can take a snapshot of the figures as at a certain date?Thank you.

HiDoes anyone know how to add a column when in the Matters tab, Conveyancing then the Open Conveyancing Matters home page?I’ve tried right clicking on the column titles, but I want to add “Sellers Agent” but the option for that column isn’t available to select - any ideas how to add a column that isn’t in the drop-down menu?Thanks

Is there a way to quickly save attachments sent to us from another firm who also uses smokeball and has sent 38 attachments via messages (previously  known as communicate) I have had to go and download each item individually and save it. It does not automatically save the documents. 

How do I add a fee if our firm works on contingency.