Enter a disbursement entry

Learn how to enter your firm’s costs, disbursements or disbursements in Smokeball.

Enter disbursements in the Smokeball Desktop App

Note: You cannot add anticipated disbursements from the Desktop App, however you can do so from the Web App.

1. Select an existing matter, then select the Time & Disbursements tab.
2. Select Disbursements to open the Disbursement entry window.
   
3. Enter the date of the disbursement, then enter the following details:
   
   • Subject
   • Description
   • Type of cost
     • Hard costs are costs paid directly to the supplier, e.g. search fees.
     • Soft costs are costs that your firm can choose to pass to the client, e.g. costs of printer paper and ink.
   • Quantity
   • Price
   • GST details, including if Input GST or Output GST are different amounts.
   • Set up activity codes so you can use the Activity drop-down menu to automatically fill in most of these fields and save time entering the same disbursement.
4. Tick whether the disbursement is Billable, or if you wish to write it off.
5. Select Save or Save & New to continue entering disbursements.

Note: You can also access the Time & Disbursements window from the Time & Disbursements tab. Any entries created here must be assigned to a matter before saving.

You can also create disbursement entries from the bar at the top of the Disbursements tab in a matter.

Enter disbursements in the Smokeball Web App

1. Open a matter, then select the Disbursements tab.
2. Select New Disbursement Entry.
3. Enter the date of the Disbursement, then enter the subject, description, quantity, and price of the Disbursement.
4. Choose whether the disbursement should be classified as a Hard Cost or Soft Cost.
   
   
   • Hard costs are costs paid directly to the supplier, e.g. search fees.
   • Soft costs are costs that your firm can choose to pass to the client, e.g. costs of printer paper and ink. 
5. Select the toggles to choose whether the disbursement is Billable, or if you wish to write it off.
6. If Input and/or Output tax is different for this disbursement, enter the amounts in the Input GST/Output GST field.
   
7. Select whether this entry is a regular disbursement or an anticipated disbursement.
   • If it's an anticipated disbursement, enter the supplier name, supplier reference and your payment due date.
     
   • If you toggle the Payable to Supplier (Disbursement) or Supplier Paid (Anticipated Disbursement) option, enter the supplier's payment details.
     • This marks the disbursement as paid, so a journal entry dated to today's date will be sent to Xero or MYOB (if your firm uses these integrations).
8. Attach a receipt to this disbursement if applicable.
9. Select Save or Save & New to continue entering disbursements.

You can also create disbursement entries from the bar at the top of the Disbursements tab in a matter.

Delete a disbursement

In the Smokeball Desktop App:

To delete a disbursement, right-click it and select Delete Disbursement.

In the Smokeball Web App:

To delete a disbursement, click on it and select Delete Disbursement at the bottom of the entry.

Good to Know

To calculate GST on the disbursement, you must enter at least the number 1 in the Quantity field.

If you are entering a disbursement that has no GST component (such as court filing fees), you can change the GST amount to 0 in the GST field of the disbursement entry.