Smokeball Q&A

Is anyone else having issues with running SB on Mac via Parallels? While I can open it and it works fine, if I multitask with other programs and then come back to SB, hover over the icon to show the open SB pages, they’re all white and I can’t activate them. I have to close down SB and start over. This is happening quite frequently. This is occurring on two new M-based Macs. It does not happen on my PC.

Hello! I recently started setting up payment plans on smokeball billing for the contacts. So far, I have set up maybe 3. I was reviewing one particular contact and notice that a payment had failed for a past month (November) . I did not get an email notifying me of the failed payment. Does anyone know if there is a setting where I can get an email with the details of failed payments for scheduled payment plans? Thanks!

I am running into an issue where my email signature won’t show up if I try to share a document from a matter via email.  It will show up when I select a contacts email from the preview at the right.  So I’m wondering if there is an Outlook integration issue.  To further clarify, from the matter documents, I right click on an attachment and select Send, then Email.  I select multiple recipients, click Next, then a blank email with the attachment and recipients will pop up.  No email signature.  It’s a minor issue, but some users in our office can’t easily navigate Outlook.

How do you guys use the Closed, Cancelled and Pending Matter Status’ in Smokeball? I’m trying to figure out whether Canceled v. Closed impacts the way Smokeball spits out reports.Are closed matters just cases that are actually completed where as canceled matters are cases that I withdraw from, the client cancels, or for what ever reason I do not see the case through to completion - I don’t know.The help articles are of no help in explaining the difference between closed and cancelled or how they impact Smokeball matters and reporting. I understand that the client can still see documents after I close a matter. Can they still see documents and communications after I cancel a matter? That’s not clear. Is cancel more egregious than close - IDK?My pending is all over the place - those are clients I typically place in a holding pattern for whatever reason (missing information, failure to pay, pedning withdrawals, etc) … How do you guys use the three status’.I’

I see that I can add interest to an invoice - but I’d like to use a default interest setting. It looks like interest can be added on a matter-by-matter basis.

Good morning, Our firm is in the metro Atlanta area and we are looking for any trainers or training company’s to integrate Smokeball with our Quickbooks program.   Looking for any referrals, especially if you have used a company to assist with this.  Thank you!

How do I add an existing contact to a matter?  I am trying to add the Chief Clerk of the Court to my “Courthouse” contact card.  When I open the Courthouse contact card, the list of contacts comes up except for the one contact I need but yet, when i open the individuals contact card, and look at what matters he is associated with, it is empty.  Is there a way to open a contact and have a choice/tab to “add this contact to matters” 

Is anyone having difficulty opening PDFs saved in smokeball lately? For the past month when opening PDFs it takes an annoying amount of time for it finally to open. 

Have a situation where a lawyer is leaving the firm with a few files. How can that lawyer download the smokeball matter or send/transfer it to a separate smokeball account? Thank you. 

Any update on how Smokeball performs with a snapdragon processor? According to a previous thread here they were working on it a year ago….?

I am looking for a solution to an issue I am facing with an Application for Consent Orders (family law) I have set it up so our client's details and assets are on the form. I can't see a way to enter the other party's assets to fill into the form?

What is the process to making a trust payment (eft) to a client and also to general for invoice payment

Can we still submit form templates someplace to have them uploaded to have them programed/set up for our use in SB.   We have not submitted any new templates since we initially set up and are finally to a point in our operations where we feel comfortable enough that we want to have more of our forms uploaded for our use through SB to make our operations easier.   My problem is, I previously emailed our templates to a specific person, but do not know who our rep would be anymore and not sure if that is even the proper way to submit if we are still able to do this. Any assistance is helpful.Thank you. 

I’m hesitant to ask for other upgrades, as I’m still waiting for my number 1 request (please add the “paid” amount to the Billing widget), but here goes:Please add a special “invoice reminder” note section in invoicing, appearing in a draft invoice as below.Why? Some clients (esp. divorce) have special instructions on how to share invoices; some have some side deal, or special discount we owe them; some have asked we send the invoice to their summer house; some want invoices shared with some third party (who isn’t a debtor); some institutional clients want the subject heading for an invoice email to have specific (non-default) information; some require redacting of information; or whatever. This special notes thing is for internal eyes only, not appearing on the invoice.  Having it would help me /us eliminate all the sticky notes I’m tripping over around my desk.  It would also help with out of office continuity on billing.

Hello!I reviewed the online tutorials and was unable to locate a description about how the Client and Debtor fields interact with each other. What I am specifically interested in is whether contact information from the Client field will be used to send invoices to the client if the Debtor field is left blank. It is my experience that the Client information does port over however there have been instances where that does not happen. If my experience is correct, is there any explanations for why the information would not port over in certain circumstances?

Is there a way to get a list of all tags used by all types of matters ideally listed by matter type. My practice is a little odd and I’d love to use tags that reflect my practice’s reality. What I’d like is a report that says, for example, for commercial contracts, these are the current tag options so I can delete some and add others. Is this possible?

Is anyone else experiencing errors when using Archie?I have had several instances where I will ask Archie to create an outline of a document, usually an intake form, and the information that Archie provides is incorrect. For example, it will list the correct date of birth but the age will be off, an it has even gone so far as to add a date of death to a client who is very much alive.When reviewing specific documents, the information that it will return is sometimes wrong or missing important parts. When I ask about the specific section of the document, it will sometimes tell me that the section does not exist.This seems like it could be a great tool, but I’m currently second guessing everything that it tells me.Charles

We have had a client pay $5,000.00 towards an outstanding invoice, we have barristers fee slips outstanding on this invoice and we paid one fee slip in full and part of another fee slip but there is nowhere that we can record a part payment of an anticipated disbursement.   Its either fully paid or not?  I have made a note in the ‘memo’ but that could easily be missed and the full fee slip paid at a future date.  Any suggestions?

I am starting to feel that they top tool bar is getting a little crowded. In each matter there is “File, Matter, Intake, Emails, Memos, Events, Tasks, Infotrack, Messages, Activity, Time & Expense, Hire a Lawyer, Matter Insights, and Archie”There is not a way, that I have been able to find, that would allow me to customize the tool bar so I can hide some of these. It just seems to busy for me.Wondering if anyone else has the same issue.

Hi I am wondering if anyone has figured out a way to easily add voice memo’s or handwritten notes from iPad/iPhone to a matter.We came from Leap and  it was very simple to upload these straight to a matter from which ever app you were using on the iPad/iPhone. For example for a voice memo in the voice memo app you could just click share and the Leap app would come up as an option and once you clicked it, there would be a prompt were you entered the matter number and pressed save - job done. This was a similar experience for saving handwritten notes taken in the iPad notes app. In Smokeball  getting these documents to the file is a long process that involves saving the file in question from the relevant app to  the “Files” app then going into the matter on the Smokeball app and adding it as a file that way. Has anyone found an easier way to do this? 

Hi allHoping someone can help with moving to another folder The option to right click and move to worksBut I usually just right click, hold and drag the item to the folder I want to place a document, letter or email Is this not working for anyone else Thanks 

Is there a medium to large size closing firm who uses Smokeball who might be willing to share their experiences?  I am trying to convince my Firm to use SB for all departments, not just Lit, so we can bill through it but the closing side has a huge amount of support staff and works through SoftPro.  I want to bill through SB but it is not cost-effective to pay for our closing side to have @ 10  users who never really use it - but I need to be able to assign originator and responsible attorney fees to them.

Can you print an expense check and charge multiple matters?We have a bill from a mediator that needs to be split between 3 matters (same accident, different people/households involved so 3 related matters).  I know you can deposit a trust check to multiple matters, but I have no recollection and can’t find anything about splitting costs between related matters.

Can you add a Mediator to a MVA matter?

How do we create email precedents on smokeball?