Smokeball

Smokeball is a hybrid desktop and cloud-based law practice management software for law firms who run on Windows. Its robust document and automation features are tightly integrated with Microsoft Word and Outlook.

Smokeball Highlights

Robust document management, organization, and productivity. Smokeball’s marquee feature is document assembly and automation. It comes with a variety of forms and letters pre-installed. Smokeball can help you set up additional templates, or you can build them yourself. The software also keeps all files and matter information–including emails and billing information–all in one place for better organization of your cases and tasks. Smokeball also has a task management feature that has the ability to attach files to specific tasks, build workflows for repetitive processes, and even generate a document from a template attached to an assigned task.

Automated time tracking. Due to the tight Microsoft Word and Outlook integration, Smokeball’s Activity Intelligence feature can keep track of what you are doing as long as you are working in Smokeball, Word, or Outlook. If you bill for time, you can convert tracked time into billable entries manually or automatically. If you bill by flat fee or contingency, Smokeball converts tracked time into profitability and productivity analyses broken down by practice area, matter, and staff member.

Smokeball Billing. Attorney billing features are tightly integrated with the Smokeball practice management system. It creates and delivers invoices, tracks trust accounts, creates billing reports, and integrates with LawPay, Quickbooks, and Xero to create full firm billing suite.

Offline access. Because Smokeball installs locally on PCs, you can keep using it even when you are offline.

Cloud backend. Instead of requiring your firm to set up and maintain a server, Smokeball uses the cloud to make your data available to everyone in your firm. This way, you can access documents from any computer with Smokeball or through the Smokeball mobile app so you can view and save documents on the go.

Smokeball Pricing

Smokeball’s pricing information is available upon request. To learn more about their pricing options, you will need to reach out for more information.

Features

Things You Might Want to Know

Windows only. If you use a Mac, you will have to run Windows using virtualization software like Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMWare Fusion in order to use Smokeball.

Apps. There are mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The mobile apps allow you to view matters, see your daily digest, see your calendar (and those of your colleagues, if applicable), tasks and to-do list, and also add documents to a matter.

Setup. After you sign up, a representative will schedule a call with you. They will guide you through the install process and remotely install and configure the software for you. Here’s what’s included in the onboarding process:

• Installation.
• Installing add-ins for Microsoft Word and Outlook.
• Setting up your letterhead template.
• Configuring user preferences.
• A consultation call to learn more about your firm and its needs.
• Two online training sessions covering basic and advanced features, and additional feature-related training you request.
• Dedicated account management from their “client success team” for the life of your subscription.

In short, the setup process is fairly time-intensive, but if you need hand-holding you will probably appreciate the attention.

Migration. Except for your contacts, there is no way to bulk import information from other practice management software into Smokeball. For contacts, you can provide a CSV file to Smokeball during your onboarding experience. The tight integration with Microsoft Outlook also includes calendar sync.

Template setup. There are three ways to get up and running with document assembly: (1) use the pre-installed templates, which include public court and administrative forms; (2) give your documents to Smokeball, which will turn them into templates for you; or (3) set up your templates yourself.

Task permissions. While it is convenient to be able to view the tasks of everyone at the firm, there is no way to restrict permissions if you don’t want everyone’s tasks to be shared with everyone else at the firm.

Invoicing included. You can track your time in their interface—either automatically or manually—and use its billing features to transform your time entry into finalized invoices and send invoices.

Backup. For storage and backup, Smokeball uses Amazon S3, a cloud-storage service with a high level of security, uptime, and backup capabilities.

Security. Smokeball isn’t as forthcoming as we would like about security. It shares very little on its website or in its documentation. What they do say is that it uses “bank-grade security, encryption, firewalls, and data backups” to keep your client data secure. We learned that it uses 256-bit SSL encryption for all data traveling between your computer and their servers and all data while at rest. For what it’s worth, most of the cloud-based practice management software options in our directory use 256-bit SSL encryption.

Ai (Activity Intelligence). Ai is a tool to help you keep track of what’s happening in your firm on a day-to-day basis. Activity Intelligence allows you to add activities to client bills or simply review your and your team’s productivity.

Who Smokeball Is For

This software is a great fit for small Windows-based firms that rely on document assembly and automation and like some extra hand-holding during setup.