General Q&A

I hope this reaches the UI/UX team eventually. The way the matter windows are set up is causing unnecessary frustration. Unless you are using a vertical monitor, the current layout makes no sense. The files tab floats over the matter details and can only be moved vertically. This makes it so you can’t really look at both the matter details and the files at the same time. You have to drag the files tab all the way to the bottom get a good look at the matter details or drag the files tab all the way up to get a good look at all the files.With the files tab dragged to the middle of the screen you can see only a few matter detail lines and files with out scrolling. Some of our older employees zoom in on their screens which makes this even worse as they can only see a few lines and files with out having to scroll. Not being able to simultaneously view the matter details and list of files is causing unnecessary frustration. . Simply having the matter details and files

Ben here, posting a great question sent to me by @Childers Law . “how do you enter your firm info into an invoice and not upload a logo?”I must confess that I do not know the answer myself! Are there any Smokeball power users online who are able to help them out?  

While working on billing yesterday, I deleted some automated time entries in the description. However, I was wondering if there is any way to retrieve those descriptions so I can include the hours via the billing. My question is if you deleted the automated billing, is there anyway that you can restore them once they have already been deleted?

Hi, is it possible to attach a file in Smokeball to a reply email in Microsoft Outlook? Or do I have to save the document locally and then attach it to the email? Thanks in advance.

I’ve started using Workflows and wonder if there’s a way for the completed workflow task to also automatically change the Stage in the Matter. If not, can SB work on that? 

Is there a way to “lock" an event so if someone goes dragging another appointment on the calendar, it doesn’t accidentally get pushed to a new time? Especially if it's a court proceeding. 

When creating an email from Smokeball, the email subject is automatically generated. Is it possible to change the template of the email subjects that are generated through Smokeball (not Smokeball billing).

Ultimately, upon talking to someone from Smokeball, they advised us that in order to view a document without it automatically billing is to hit the red ‘x’ in the top right hand corner. However, upon trying that out, it generated an auto-billing that was emailed to me, when I was just viewing a document. How can we look at a document without it auto-billing? 

When assigning individual messages to Smokeball matters, one has to click in the Smokeball field (at the bottom of said message) and then select the matter.  Has anyone ever figured out a way to do this without using the mouse?  If so, would you please share what utility/script you are using to do so? 

I had smokeball set to group automatic time entries. I now realise it has negated the individual activites making up the group entry from appearing: is there a way to get them to show up?

I am interested to know what calendar scheduling tools Smokeball firms are using to book in meetings with their clients and other third parties.

When tracking income allocation for flat fee Matters, the canned allocation report will attribute the income for a flat fee based on the timekeeper recorded with the flat fee entry.Is there a known way to track fee income using the (non-billable) time entries for each timekeeper working on the flat fee Matter?Our goal is to have a report to assess flat fee estate planning Matter profitability. Any help is great!

I have a client that is listed as Mother and he is the Father.  I go into the details and it will not allow me to change it.  Help.  

I have a task to add State/Federal holidays to our calendar..  Is there a short cut to do this?

When we use LawPay in Smokeball why do we only have two options for clients to pay their invoice?Only Creditcard and Echeck. Outside of Smokeball, When I provide the Lawpay link to our clients, they have a third option to pay “PayLater”. That is an option with Affirm Financing if client is not able to pay with credit card or echeck.

Hello and Happy New Year,My firm works on several cases where the opposing counsel will have multiple attorneys assigned. I’ve created the contact for the firm and added handling attorneys as “staff members” with “add another person”.The issue I am having is that when I would like to email all of the opposing attorneys, only the first email address pops up. What is the best way to work around this so I can select from all listed emails? 

is there any way of saving an excel workbook so as to make it availabe in every new matter?

Is there a way for a deposition that is created in the “Discovery” section to automatically post to the matter and the calendar as an event so that I don’t have to enter it twice? Also, is there a way to connect a document (like the depo notice) to an event? 

I have to download and reinstall Smokeball on my computer and lost alll the settings for setting up scansnap. The current instructions appear to be for a newer version of the scanner. I know mine is a home version bought in 2019 and I cannot figure out the path as I have no file called smokeball scan.exe. There used to be instructions for setting up my scanner in support files, but it is no longer there. Anyone who can help is appreciated. Thank you. 

The ability to duplicate tasks (instead of an entire workflow) is a suggestion I have considered for a while. Our firm utilizes Smokeball for our “in-office” matters as well as client matters, and at times we need to duplicate weekly/monthly/yearly tasks. Having this option for reoccurring tasks or a button to duplicate a specific task (for multiple employees etc.) would be great!  I hope this can be an added feature in the future.😊 Thoughts from other users on this; is this something that would be beneficial to your firm too?

 Hi I’m Liz 👋 It’s my role here to make Smokeball the best tool for running your firm, as it possibly can be.One thing we’ve noticed is that there’s a huge opportunity to speed up and streamline the Intake process. We’re at the stage where we’ve built a new way to collect information about a matter from your client and automatically sync everything to your matter in one click.   A prototype for Victorian conveyancers is ready to go, now we need your help to test it out.   What’s involved? 30 minutes of your time to take a look at what we’ve built so far, then take it for a spin!  What’s in it for me?If you participate in the test and would like to keep using the feature then you can keep them on for your firm!   What are you waiting for?  If you’re interested in participating or have questions just reply to th

When viewing the calendar can I view the calendar in columns for each person?  The office calendar is color coded but all the appointments are scrambled up not in columns which makes it difficult to view multiple people at 1 time.

Hi Everyone,My name is Aurora, and I am looking for a law clerk who can help me for a few hours every fortnight in dealing with my trust. If you know anyone, please let me know.

We have multiple office addresses and the automation will list the assigned attorney’s name, but then the firm name and primary address. I can’t figure out how to have it fill in the address in the pleadings captions to the specific address being used by THAT attorney…  help?Is that an option? If not, can it be…?

Hello everyone, I am trying to set up a new phone system. I currently have a virtual line. My question is what phone system do users in Australia currently have and does it complement their smokeball system. I have been told that Ring syncronises with smokeball, can record, convert to text and also bills automatically. Is anyone using this service, are they happy with it. All pointers inclusive of fees would be greatly appreciated.