Intake with Smokeball Payments

Smokeball Payments is an integrated payment solution for your firm that you can use to process transactions. Once you have signed up for Smokeball Payments, you can use it to receive trust or retainer payments as part of the intake process. One common use for this solution is to take pre-payment when your clients book a consultation through an intake form. 

Read on to learn more. 

Create a pre-payment intake form

1. Select the Settings icon in the lower left corner on the web app and then select Intake Forms. Alternatively, if you are on the desktop app, select File and then select Intake Forms.
   
2. Select the Create form+ button in the upper right.
3. Input the form type and form name choose the applicable state(s) applicable matter types. 
4. Select the form creation method. All three options will work, but the remainder of this article will demonstrate how to integrate Smokeball Payments with a custom built form. 
   • Learn more about building a custom intake form. 
   • Learn more about generating forms with Smokeball AI.
5. Select the blue Create form button.
   
6. Optional: Select the blue Edit sections button to add additional sections to the form. For a consultation pre-payment form, we'd recommend creating a section for basic client information, a calendar appointment section, and a section for the payment. Note: You can mouseover the title of each section and select the pencil icon to edit it.
   
7. Select the Payment section and drag and drop the Payment component tile from the right side of your screen onto the gray line and plus icon in the middle of your screen.
   
8. Enter the amount your client needs to pay and choose the appropriate trust/retainer account from the dropdown menu.
9.  Optional: Select the Field settings button to make the completion of the Payment section mandatory.
   
10. Use the toggle in the upper right to set the form to Active once you are finished.
     

Share a Payments intake form with your client

1. Open your lead/matter and select the Intake tab.
2. Select the blue Share form button and the payment form you created.
   
3. Choose to send the form via the Client Portal or email.
   

Client experience

Once your client receives and opens the form, they will have the ability to complete the sections and prompts you created using the links on the left side of the screen.

On the payment section, they will need to enter their credit card or bank account information.

Once they finish entering their preferred payment details, the client will select Validate Account to confirm the information they entered is valid to complete the transaction. Select Next and complete any remaining sections.

Your client will then be taken to the summary. They then need to select Submit and process payment to complete the intake and begin processing payment.

Your client will then receive a confirmation message and have the option to save the form for their records.

You can easily track your client's progress through their matter's Intake tab. This tab will also let you know if the transaction failed.

You can also select the three dot icon and then select View to see their specific responses. 

Did You Know

• This feature can only take payment into trust or operating retainer. It is not able to apply payments to an existing invoice.
• If your client's attempt to pay fails, you will receive an alert in the Notifications Center of the Smokeball desktop app if you are a Grow/Prosper+ user. You will receive a Client Portal message if you are a Boost user. 
• You can view a full record of the client's intake form payments on their matter's Transactions tab. The entry will note it is an intake payment under the Description column.  
• You can also view a full record of intake form payments on the Transactions tab of the global Accounts view.