Smokeball Q&A

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?

Hi, I would like to be able to see all of the file documents on one screen, rather than scrolling through just the documents that show up at the bottom of the matter.   In other words, how do we look at the file contents similar to the way you can see the file contents in Microsoft File Explorer?  I want to see all of the folders and as many of the other documents at one time.  Is that possible? It seems you should be able to show only the file contents. Thanks! 

I wish the archive numbering was automatic.  When you close a file in archive Smokeball auto generate the numbers.  Waste a lot of time finding the last number and then remembering which one you are up to when archiving.  Also do know when someone else is archiving a file.

Is there a way to track quotes to potential clients in Smokeball?

Hello,We are a Smokeball customer looking to integrate Smokeball to our systems for managing our corporate practice.  We would like to use the Smokeball API to accomplish this.  How can we gain access to the Smokeball API for our implementation?   The API documentation is here:  https://docs.smokeball.com/docs/api-docs/1e13a13124aee-introductionAny help is appreciated.Chris

Folks-  looking to hear from some of you who have used Archie.  How do you like it?  How does it benefit your practice?  Bonus points if you are a family law attorney.  

I have somehow broken my smokeball. I used to get automatic entries for every time any user imported a document into smoke ball or linkedin email which helped me figure out what I needed to bill for but I must have changed some setting and broken that, how do I get it back? 

Hi AllWe are new to Smokeball and on our old PM system had a practice of sending reminders to clients 10 days after the invoice was generated, but before it became overdue.   I can’t see a way to filter invoices like that in SB, as it seems to only allow a report on invoices actually overdue. Can anyone help?

I use one of the Channels as sort of an internal Instant Messaging option.  Is there a way to set an audible alert for a channel so I know a message has been sent via that Channel? 

I frequently open a word document from one matter, edit it and otherwise change its content specific to another matter and then go to save it to the second matter, but the “save” and “save as” commands default to the matter from which it was opened and I cannot figure out how to exit the default destination so that the document can be saved directly to the second matter.  I realize I should probably think ahead and copy the document to the second matter before opening it, but I usually don’t remember to do so until after the document is opened and the editing has begun.  Is there a way to save a document once it’s been opened and edited to a matter that is not the one from which the document was opened?

Hi everyone,Just a quick one - we have set up Smokeball so that when we create a bill for a matter and finalise it, it automatically saves to the matter in a ‘Billing’ folder. However, matters that are being billed a second or third time are not being saved into the same folder (the one already made) - Smokeball is creating a new billing folder every single time we issue an invoice.Is there a way to fix this so every matter doesn’t have several billing folders, and all invoices are saved to the first folder created?Cheers! MJ

Is there a way to change the default payment method to ‘Bank Transfer’ when adding a payment against a bill? The default is Cheque - and who uses those these days? It only takes a second or two, but manually changing it for every receipt is a bit of a pain.