General Q&A

Is there a way to email memos directly from the memo tab without printing them as a pdf and saving them first?

For me, this question primarily relates to Estate Planning matter types (could be others), but is there a streamlined process that exists or anyone otherwise employs to save a historical version of a model/template document so that it can be accessed later (whether as a template or not). Each year or throughout a year our office will make changes to a template and in some cases it is beneficial to still have access to the old version, but otherwise use the new version on a daily basis.For one individual template document, I’ve considered a number of ways to do it (saving it to a Smokeball Matter for firm operations or duplicating the template and renaming the new one within the Forms/Templates interface), but in this instance I’d like to be able to efficiently export dozens of documents that currently exist as a Form/Template. I haven’t seen an easy way to do this.Thanks!John

We are an estate planning firm and we often come up with very specific clauses that we may want to use in the future.  One idea that I have had is to create a form folder in SB and put the clauses there to pull in as needed.  Does anybody else have another idea?I know that some like to use Quickparts in Word - but so far as I can find, there is no way to create a common place for those clauses.

I was just wondering if there is a way to create a Lead from a phone message.  Thank you.

Has anyone set up workflows for Family Law similar to the ones shown here: Family Workflows – Smokeball Support Hub?  If so, would you be willing to share your best practices, or maybe a screenshot of your workflow with the rest of us?  I am not sure if it is possible to export a workflow.  If it is, I would be happy to share mine with the rest of the community. 

Hi All,I noticed this afternoon, I tried to populate a Purchaser File Cover Sheet (detailed version) and it appears to be removed from the Precedents list.Does anyone else use this precedent? I filtered in the precedents to show deleted incase I mistakenly deleted it, however it’s not showing up as deleted? Thought I would see if anyone else that uses this precedent has also noticed it was removed?ThanksZoe

Hello all!Communicate just got even better!  You can now see new Communicate messages in your Windows notifications.  Just have your notification setting turned on in Windows and Focus Assist off to see them.Check out this support article for more information.

How do you unlink a word document with a Smokeball matter?  For example -- my current issue is that I am exporting word documents from Smokeball to save on my local network, and the exported version still has the matter linked to it.  Even if I try to save a copy of the document, the original matter is still linked, and I cannot figure out how to (1) remove the link to the original matter and/or (2) change the original matter to a different matter.  

Is there a way to prioritize tasks? Other than setting reminders and/or due dates.

Smokeball’s Product team is considering adding a new tab to the existing Asset Tracking Details layout already available on our Estate Planning and Probate matters. The tab would enable the inclusion of Intellectual Property assets, and could be used to track and store information relating to IP held by your client. Our team has come up with a mock-up for such a tab addition, and would love your feedback!Some things to consider:placement of the tab - does its placement in the row of tabs make logical sense to you? fields included - are there any fields glaringly missing? should ones currently included be removed? IP Type field - an editable dropdown with Copyright, Trademark, and Patent optionsNote 1: the Value, Valuation Date, Ownership, Beneficiary, and Note fields are mandatory and consistent throughout the layout, so they will be included on the addition should we move forwardNote 2: visib

End the Week on a High Note with some Smokeball Trivia. Answer for some Smokeball Swag sent straight to you. The question this week is…….I saved a document to a matter three weeks ago in word format. I’ve probably have had 10 versions of it since then that I have saved as a separate document and just saved the original document with changes. My client came back and said they liked the original document after all. Is there a way I can view this without having to recreate it? Does Smokeball also have the ability to compare two documents?

Emails are currently saved into the main “Documents” folder. This creates a long list of emails within the folder.Is there a way to have emails save into another folder? For example, is it possible to have emails that save into a single user-created “email” folder within the main “Document” folder?

Our practice is limited to personal injury law. We have several medical experts and need to save their CV with their contact. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?

Has anyone ever been able to color code your smokeball calendar

Is there a way to send one email to all clients? For example a newsletter or Christmas wishes etcI want to be able to do this without going into individual matters and utilise the contact/client area if possible.

Attention California clients: At approximately 8:30 a.m. Central Time tomorrow Thursday, November 10, 2022, we will be releasing the new folder structure for the Court & Authority section of the Forms & Templates Library.This structure offers a more streamlined approach that will be easier to navigate:   If you are having trouble locating a particular form, simply type the form name or number in the search box highlighted below. This will open the location of the form for you:   Once the search returns the results, you may right click on the relevant form to “Open item location” which will take you to the newly des

I am re-evaluating our VOIP provider. I am aware that Smokeball provides a RingCentral integration. However the support article suggests that there may be some downsides to this offering for us. If you use the RingCentral / Smokeball integration can you tell me:Are phone calls initiated from a traditional VOIP handset (as opposed to RingCentral Cell Phone App or Desktop Ringcentral click-to-call solutions) tracked to Smokeball? If you receive a phone call how do you associate it to a matter? If you initiate a phone call from a hand set then can you associate it to a matter? Are internal phone calls between RingCentral/smokeball users tracked? Example: Attorney conference calls staff for 5-10 minutes to discuss work to be performed on case. Is there a method to report phone call volume and

Is there a place to add a Co-Counsel’s bar #?

Have any precedents been moved to market place precedents once the addon service was introduced? 

I’m a long-time RingCentral user, but am considering switching to Zoom Phone.  I would appreciate hearing of anyone’s experiences with Zoom, especially those who may have already made that switch.Thanks!Sally

I have a case where I will have over 50 clients in the same case, and I need a contract for each one.  I have an automated form for individual cases that automatically puts in the client name, address, phone and e-mail address in the contract.  This works great for 1 plaintiff cases, but I can’t figure out an efficient way to do the automation for individual contracts for cases with more than 1 client.  Is there a way to do this?

In family law property matters, it's not uncommon for the parties to agree to split the fees for drafting and filing consent orders (particularly if the other party is unrepresented).I made a costs agreement to that effect with the OP for limited scope works clearly stating they are not my client etc.Do I have to create a new matter for this other party to be able to send them an invoice for half the fees?Or is there a way to create two invoices within a matter, for each party to pay their half?

Hi All, If anyone out there is running Smokeball on a Surface Pro 9 5G, I would love to hear how your experience has been with the SQ3 chip.  (You’re welcome to send me an email directly.) I have tried running Smokeball on a Surface Pro X which had the SQ2 chip but the emulation was too much for the chip to keep up with.  Additionally, the embarrassingly low amount of RAM on the Surface Pro X made it pretty frustrating to use.  Now that Microsoft has decided to stop including LTE/5G connectivity with any Intel-based Surface Pro models, we will have to choose between having a network connection or dealing with lag-ridden performance due to emulation.  I am positive that at some point, Smokeball will be ported to Windows on ARM but until then -- as my kid said to Alexa, after being given the cold shoulder by the cat -- “Alexa, play sad cat music.”

Is there a place to see Smokeball's roadmap? I know other software companies share that so people can see where features are in the pipeline.I love Smokeball and talk it up all the time, so being able to talk about features that are in the pipeline is helpful. I am also hoping more features get added to the Lawmatics integration soon. The intake automation has been awesome! 

Hi, We sometimes share documents in office 365 with opposing counsel and our clients. That way we can edit as we go easily. Does smokeball have a way to integrate the different versions of our word documents with 365? Or do we just have to download each version specifically before we edit further?