Collecting matter information using Matter Intake

Learn how to use Intake to collect data directly from your clients and have this information automatically populate into your matter.

Creating a Matter Intake form from a lead that came through via your Lead Intake Form? Select Convert to Matter on the lead to get started.

Configure Matter Intake settings

The Intake add-on in Smokeball involves sending out forms tailored to the matter's area of law.

To ensure your Intake Forms have been set up for the relevant States and areas of law that your firm practices in:

1. Navigate to Settings in the top-right corner of Smokeball (cogwheel icon) and select Intake Forms from the left-hand menu in the pop-up window.
2. Select the General tab and check that the required States and areas of law (Practice Areas) are listed there.
   
3. Click into either of the dropdown fields to add or remove States or Practice Areas.
4. Click the Save button to save your changes.

Create a new Matter Intake Form

To get started with sending an Intake Form to your client:

1. Open the matter and click the Intake tab.
2. Click the Share form button in the top right corner of the screen.
   
3. Select a form from the Form drop-down menu.
   Then, verify the details of the client's Contact card and Email. 
   
   The Form Preview will automatically populate fields with information from the matter details.
4. Choose whether you wish to send this form via the Client Portal or via email. Edit the message if needed.
   • Select the Custom Field icon to insert specific field information from your matter into the message.
     
   • You can customise this message for all matters in Smokeball Settings > Intake > Client Messages.
5. Click the Share button to share as a Client Portal message, or click the Open Email button if sending the form as an email.

Create a custom form

You can easily create a Matter Intake form with the fields of your choice. Refer to the Create a custom Intake Form article for more information on how to set this up.

Monitor Matter Intake progress

To view all shared Intake Forms across all matters, along with their progress, click on Intake from the main menu on the left in either the Smokeball Desktop App or Web App.

Desktop view:

Web app view:

You can also add the Intake Widget to your Dashboard and view the total count of forms submitted or see the forms submitted as a list.

Learn more about the Smokeball dashboard and how to add widgets to the dashboard.

Matter Intake Actions

In the Intake tab, you will see a list of all forms involving the client and their status.

Clicking on the three dots button next to the form will open up a list of actions you can take on the form:

• View - Access the form from the client's perspective.
• Send Reminder - Send a Client Portal or email message to the client as a reminder to complete the form.
  • You can customise this message for all matters in Smokeball Settings > Intake > Client Messages.
• Copy Link - copy the URL of the form to your clipboard.
• Show QR Code - view and/or copy the QR code of the form to your clipboard.
• Edit Responses - make changes to form responses.
• Close Form - Close access to the form; useful if you have collected data from the client elsewhere.
• Delete Form - Delete the form. This can only be done if the Modified field shows "Not opened".
  
  

Save form responses to the matter

To view the responses that the client has entered so far, click on the form name or select View from the dropdown options when clicking the three dots icon.

To copy these responses to the matter, select Save Responses (Save icon) in the top right of the screen. 

Notes:

• When you save Responses, it will overwrite any existing field information in the matter.
• The Save Responses button will not appear for any FamilyProperty forms sent to the client (e.g. Questionnaire).