The eInvoice portal reduces the need for your clients to contact your firm about invoices by improving visibility on paid or outstanding invoices.
When eInvoices are enabled, invoices sent to clients will contain a button to View Details, which leads to the eInvoice portal on their browser. From here they can pay or review the invoice.
Enable eInvoices for all matters
- Navigate to the gear icon on the top-right corner of Smokeball.
- Select Firm Settings.
- Select Invoice Settings from the left menu.
- Under eInvoice Preview, choose whether you want to show invoice details grouped by Staff or as a list.
- When grouped by Staff, invoices in the eInvoice portal will display the Staff member’s name and are expandable to show the line items related to them, broken down by day.
- When displayed as a list, invoices in the eInvoice portal will list all line items on one table.
- When grouped by Staff, invoices in the eInvoice portal will display the Staff member’s name and are expandable to show the line items related to them, broken down by day.
- Select Save.
Modify eInvoice settings for specific matters
If you wish to enable or disable eInvoicing for select matters:
- Open a matter in Smokeball or Smokeball Bill and select Edit Matter.
- Navigate to Invoice Settings.
- Under the eInvoice section, eInvoices are set to use the firm default. Use the drop-down menu to change this setting for this specific matter.
- You also have the option to override the default Surcharge settings or to include payment buttons and QR codes on your invoices and emails/messages. Note: The Payments checkbox will only be visible if you have an active LawPay integration or Smokeball Payments integration.
- Including QR Codes and/or Payment buttons on an invoice will not conflict with manual payments. Even if a manual payment is applied, the balance will still update in real-time. For example, if a manual payment has already paid an invoice in full, then a client clicking on the payment link will see a balance due of $0.
- Including QR Codes and/or Payment buttons on an invoice will not conflict with manual payments. Even if a manual payment is applied, the balance will still update in real-time. For example, if a manual payment has already paid an invoice in full, then a client clicking on the payment link will see a balance due of $0.
- You also have the option to override the default Surcharge settings or to include payment buttons and QR codes on your invoices and emails/messages. Note: The Payments checkbox will only be visible if you have an active LawPay integration or Smokeball Payments integration.
- Select Save.
How the eInvoice portal works
When you send an invoice to a client, they will receive an email. To enter the eInvoice portal, select View Details at the bottom of the email:
The eInvoice portal displays outstanding invoices at the top of the list, followed by invoices paid within the last 30 days, grouped by matter.
- Overdue invoices display a red ring around the due date.
- Invoices paid in full display a green ring around the due date.
- Unpaid invoices that aren’t past the due date display no ring.
Download a PDF copy of the invoice by selecting the Download button on the right-hand side of the screen. Select the arrow icon next to Download to choose to download a summary or detailed PDF of the invoice.
- The summary invoice displays the Staff and Total in the Fees section.
- The detailed invoice will be the same PDF as the standard PDF invoice would be.
How to check if a client has viewed an invoice
Once a client opens the eInvoice portal, Smokeball will mark all invoices on the page as Viewed. Check all viewed invoices in the Invoice tab of the matter.
If you want to check all invoices across all matters, select the Invoices section on the left menu and navigate to the Viewed column.
Click on the tick icon to see who viewed the invoice.