General Q&A

Sorry if this has been answered, Im new.If I make a call to a client is there a way to link that call to a matter.Say the call was 43 minutes, can I save that as a time entry to a matter directly? without having to make a time entry from scratch?Many thanks,Ian

Is it possible to hyperlink a document such a Notice within the event window. Or even create a clickable link to the zoom conference that most events are taking place within. 

Does Smokeball have a CRM function, that allows for scheduled text messages to be send to clients to remind them of court dates and appointments. I run a criminal defense practice and something like this would be great for me. a lot of the products I have seen are pretty expensive for a solo.

Is there a way to link 2 matters together.ie: If we have a probate file open for a client as well as a personal injury file, can they be linked together?

I have some templates that do not automatically open in document containers, and others that do but I would like to switch them to a different document container. I know I could send them in for automation by the SB team, but I kind of like doing it myself 😊. That said, I can’t find where or how to assign a document container to a template (other than when I’m creating the template from scratch. Does anyone know where to find the way to assign a document container to a template? Thanks!

Hey! I am wondering how other firms label/note when certain clients have settled and other clients are still in active litigation. I have been editing the descriptor, but I was curious if there is a better or more clear way for everyone in the firm to know who is settled without have to click through a bunch of drop downs.

Are you able to select a 'from’ date when you specify forwarding address please?

I want to be able to search contacts by categories, i.e. life planners or accident reconstructionist.  I can figure out how to add the persons expertise so i can search by that expertise.  I often forget their name ut know their specialty. . 

SMOKEBALL TRIVIA. Bringing back a classic of the community. This week's question is as follows. How can I designate a special common fact about a client, like language, job specialty, high value? Is there something I can do with a contact that will allow me to see it across the board? First one to answer correctly wins an entry for a prize. Details to Follow regarding that. 

Can a full list of tasks be printed? 

Does anyone know if there’s a way to display thumbnail images of photos? Our firm primarily practices criminal law and we just recently got Smokeball. For the most part, Smokeball is great but I’m finding it really difficult to review and locate photos in cases that have a substantial amount of discovery. I know you can click the blue cloud to download and then preview each photo individually, but when there are thousands of photos in a file this is really time consuming. I’m also finding that it’s taking me forever to locate a specific photo when needed, as frantically click through the discovery file, blindly selecting photos to download and preview just so I can guess whether the photo I’m looking for comes before or after the one I’m viewing. Am I missing something???

SMOKEBALL TRIVIA. Bringing back a classic of the community. This week's question is as follows. How can I tell if a task was reassigned or the due date was changed? First one to answer correctly wins an entry for a prize. Details to Follow regarding that.   

For example: Is there a way to see all the phone logs that have been recorded by staff in a particular case file? 

Hi All,I am having difficulty keeping track of fee-earner times.There are two different reports available:  Time, Fees and Expenses Income Allocation Report

Has anyone had issues with losing work if Word crashes?  There does not seem to be an auto-save feature when working from documents opened from Smokeball

Would it be possible for the work phone to be integrated with smokeball to capture all phone logs?

We often share documents with opposing counsel and clients and like to do so securely. Is there some way to share a file folder? I cannot find a way to do it - only to share the files/documents themselves.  Thanks!

How can I modify an existing template to modify the folders within the “All Files”/Document folders? I would like to be able to open case and have the folders automatically create subfolders such as pleadings, orders, correspondence, etc. 

Good morning Smokeball community.I am currently working directly with Smokeball on a technical issue, and I would like to get feedback from any other users who may be experiencing this issue.In a nutshell, when attempting to open documents in our Smokeball application, we receive the following Application Error:“There was a problem communicating with Word.  Please close the application and try again.  It is recommended you save all documents before closing.”If anyone has experienced this issue and remedied the error, I’d love to learn about how you accomplished that.Thank you,Matt

How do I add a payment plan tab to contacts? Right now, I don't have a payment plan tab.

Hi All, Just wanted to share with you that Smokeball does work on Surface Pro X running Windows 11 for ARM.  I believe that the requirements posted online on Smokeball’s website refer to Surface Pro X running Windows 10 for ARM. I believe that Smokeball is now functional on Windows for ARM because Microsoft have improved the emulator for Intel/X86 based applications rather than the Smokeball app itself having been recompiled.  Either way, I will take it. I am running Windows 11 for ARM Version 22H2 (OS Build 22622.290). I did make one tweak to the shortcut to help Smokeball get out of the loop of wanting to apply updates.  I enabled the “Run this program as an administrator” feature to allow Smokeball to be happy that the updates had indeed been applied. The speed is decent.  Not amazing.  But decent.  However, the always-connected

Does Smokeball require that letters which are addressed to people only use their first initial and then surname, or is it a choice that we have made as an organisation? For instance, at present a letter addressed to me would state “Ms E Buckland” rather than “Ms Emma Buckland”. Is it possible to change it so that the full name can be used?

Hi, Is there a way to set up email notifications when tasks are allocated? 

Continuing this from the prior Community:  I have now attempted to install Smokeball on an M1 (ARM) Mac.  It does not work because the regular version of Windows does not work in VMWare Fusion or Parallels.  Because of the underlying ARM chip (M1) only the ARM version of Windows can be used.  Smokeball does not work on that.  I ran into the same issue with Smokeball on the Surface Pro X which is also ARM based.  Smokeball Billing is available through Chrome (not Safari) and Edge (which is based on Chromium).  I believe there is a website through which you can use Smokeball Communicate but I do not remember the website and I have not made it work yet.   If anyone has any experience with Smokeball on an M1 Mac, please let me know.