Smokeball is a powerful yet easy-to-use platform, thoughtfully designed to support the way you work. In this section, you will get an overview of Smokeball's key navigation and features available on the home screen. Expand the headings below for a quick summary of each feature, or follow the links to individual support pages for more in-depth guidance.
Smokeball Basic Navigation
Once you log into Smokeball, you will be presented with:
- Home Screen Tabs: Access your Smokeball File Menu and navigate to our Support page and resources
- Action Bar: The 'Go to' place for creating new matters, creating contacts, events, tasks, etc.
- Views: Quickly toggle between your customisable Dashboard, Matters, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Activity, Reports and Search.
- Quick Search: The quickest way to find a matter, contacts, documents, emails, and memos
Click on the headings below for more information on each navigation section.
Tabs
File: Menu option to get to Smokeball Settings, Intake Form builder, Archie Settings, access Support, Reset your Password, Log out, or exit Smokeball.
Smokeball: You default logged in view of the Smokeball's Home Screen.
Messages: Smokeball's secure messaging and file sharing feature. Use Messages to interact with any client/third party or chat internally with your clients in the Client Portal.
Time & Cost Recoveries: Create, review, or edit Time, Fee, and Cost Recovery entries across all matters. Learn more about Time & Cost Recoveries.
Firm Insights: Smokeball's powerful business intelligence feature that helps with the business side of running a law firm. Understand business trends, referral sources, matter & area of law profitability, staff insights, etc. This feature is only available for users designated as Firm Owner. Talk to your Account Manager if you do not see this tab. Learn more about Firm Insights.
Community: The Smokeball Community is a space to ask questions about Smokeball, share ideas, and connect with other legal professionals using Smokeball.
Marketplace: Smokeball works with many integration partners to ensure that our software covers all of your firm's needs. Visit the Smokeball Marketplace to view all available integrations in a central location.
Support: Quickest way to view Support contact information, create tickets, and get up to date Release Notes and Training resources.
Action Bar
Smokeball's Action Bar is your place for taking "action" in Smokeball.Â
New Lead: Select this action to create a new lead.
New Matter: This is where you will go each time you create a new matter. You can also create matter templates that suit your workflow.
New Contact: Quickly create a new contact using this action. You can add a new contact from here even before you have created a matter for them.Â
Event: Quick-add a calendar Event from here that may not have a related matter set up. Matters can still be linked to the event if creating for an existing matter.
Task: Create a new Task without having to navigate to the matter first.
Phone Message: Easily record information from your inbound phone calls and assign missed calls to relevant staff members. Learn more about creating phone messages.
Activity: Activities can be used to track the day-to-day actions throughout the life of a matter. Learn more about creating activities.
Memo: Create a memo to store quick notes on a matter.
Billing: The Billing action will open to the Smokeball web app in your browser, where you can access your matter accounting.
Review AutoTime: AutoTime is a Smokeball feature that will allow you to automatically generate time entries based on your activity within a matter. Use this action to review your AutoTime entries.
Views
Quick place to jump to your Dashboard, Matters, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Activity, and Smokeball desktop Reports.
Dashboard: The Dashboard is the default view when you first launch Smokeball. Dashboards can be customised per staff member to highlight the key information that you want to see at a glance. Learn more about Dashboards.
Matters: The Matters view displays all Matters and Leads in one place, and is where you will most commonly go to open to an existing Matter or Lead. The list can be filtered by area of law, matter type, staff member(s), status (e.g. Open, Pending, Closed, etc), and more, making it easy to find exactly what you need. Learn more about organising and filtering Matters.
Contacts: All Contacts imported or created in Smokeball can be viewed in the Contacts view. Learn more about using the Contacts view.
Calendar: the Calendar view acts as your shared calendar in Smokeball, where you can choose to see any staff member's calendar or set up group calendars. Learn more about using the Calendar view.
Tasks: Keep track of outstanding and completed tasks in the Tasks view. Learn more about using the Tasks view.Â
Activity: View all activities completed by staff members on a given day or date range. Learn more about using the Activity view.Â
Reports: The Reports view offers a range of built-in reports to help optimise your firm’s work routines, keep track of your deadlines, or maintain strong relationships with your clients. Learn more about Smokeball reports.
Search: Access advanced searching in the Search view. Learn more about search in Smokeball.
Search
Searching is the quickest way to find anything you are looking for. Smokeball's Search can help find any Matters, Contacts, Calendar Events, Tasks, Files, and Memos. Learn more about the best practices for searching in Smokeball.