General Q&A

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?

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 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?

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…..

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?

Did I miss the ‘heads up’ that the EPOA form was changing? What a mess!

We generally provide free initial consultations, but there are times that a client need an extended consultation or we may give some substantive suggestions during the consultation. On those occasions we will charge the (prospective) client for the time. However, in those situations the client is still prospective and hasn’t signed a legal service agreement yet. We create leads for prospective clients but only convert them to matters once we are hired and have a signed legal services agreement. I recently realized, however, that Smokeball will not let us bill from a lead. We have to convert the lead to a matter in order to create an invoice. I’m not too happy about that limit in Smokeball’s functionality, but I want to know how other firms deal with the situation. How are you creating an invoice and billing for consultations? I’d also like to request that Smokeball allow users to bill from a Lead (since you can attach time and expense entries to a Lead), but I’m not sure how to submit

Does anyone know if a client receives any sort of confirmation or notification when they make a payment towards their payment plan? We were billing recently and decided not to send bills to clients on a payment plan who have no new activity, but then we were wondering when they would be receiving communications from us about their balance and what that communication would look like. 

Is there a way to generate invoices for when a client has a balance due, but no new work is done?  Besides using the “reminders” tab?? 

Our office created an Estates Dispute General Smokeball matter, and our client was initially both the sole Executor of the Estate and a beneficiary. She has now been removed as per Court orders and is now a just beneficiary. A new Executor has been appointed. We have changed the Matter details to reflect this, but now Smokeball seems to think the new Executor is our client. I am unsure how to edit our matter settings so that our client is correctly listed both as the beneficiary and as our client. 

I really like the idea of the Court Date and Deadlines line (it’s not a tab) but I need additional “dates” like Sentencing Date, or be able to edit the ones that are currently set up. Even more helpful would be to include dates that are set up upside this line, i.e. regular “Add Event” here. There are just not enough options right now.  Jim

Hello,We are a PI law firm and often have huge discovery files.  We are new to Smokeball and have encountered an issue transferring all documents to a matter due to the limit being reached.  Has anyone else had this issue?  We are not storing imaging files and are trying to eliminate duplicate documents, but for some matters, we are unable to transfer all documents to Smokeball.  This is disappointing because one of the big reasons for switching to Smokeball was to use Archie for discovery.  Thanks in advance for sharing your experience and solutions to this limitation. Thank you,Tracy