Smokeball

SmallLaw Review

Opmerkingen: Overall, an excellent software and definitely worth considering for your law firm, especially if you handle real estate transactions.

Pluspunten:

1. Smokeball is an "everything" platform. We realized we were only using the other softwares for billing/invoicing, but found little use for them otherwise. Smokeball, on the other hand, is much more versatile. We track our to-dos there, create workflows, assign tasks/projects to others at the firm (it avoids the back-and-forth internal emails), share our draft documents with client through a secure portal, and much more! 2. If you are a real estate transactions law firm (as we are), Smokeball is the only platform specifically designed for that practice area. We love that it automatically calendars deadlines, has templates built in, and otherwise automates much of the closing process for us (and avoids costly mistakes such as missing a deadline).

Minpunten:

1. Cost (yup, it's one of the more expensive options you'll find out there). But when evaluating options, the thought process should be whether you will save some time by implementing the features of the software. And if so, a few extra bucks monthly is well worth it. 2. A little glitchy at times. We sometimes would create an invoice but would not be able to load it or send to a client until the next day. I have no idea why this happens, though it hasnt been a big issue for us. 3. Requires you to invest a lot of time to set up to automate your documents and learn how to modify them as you go. But, again, it is time well spent.

Small Elder Law Practice

Opmerkingen: More efficient, able to handle more business in less time.

Pluspunten:

It took a while, but once I understood how things work it made it easy to manage my client workload. Before I would lose track of matters where the client should have gotten back to me and didn't. Now with tasks it is easy to keep track. Also like the billing options and the automation. I am much more efficient than before.

Minpunten:

Still getting used to billing hourly. I like that it tracks my time, but the entries are not good for billing as difficult for a client to understand. Also wish I could have converted Time Matters client to Smokeball easily. It would have been expensive so I running two databases.

Disingenuous Company. Dead End Product. Stay Away

Opmerkingen: I said I wanted API access. They said, "what's an API?" I sent them a link to their website showing where they provide API access to developers. They refused. This became an issue because they will not provide your client and matter data in a useful format. It's a lawyer-run company. The support staff is legalistic and misleading. I would not do business with them again. I don't think "they'll make it right" if you have an issue. I know I sound like a crank. But I feel pretty badly treated by them and in 2023 the lack of an open API is insane. Now that I have my data out of their system, I am no longer hostage to their garbage. If I had read a review like this during my evaluation, I hope that I would have hesitated and made a different choice.

Pluspunten:

The software has a point of view. Its ideal user is a middle-aged tech-phobic lawyer that needs most decisions made for him.For that reason, the software makes a lot of choices for you. And mostly they are fine choices if you want a desktop-based app and a forms-heavy practice.They oversell their integration with MS Word and Outlook. Their custom add-ins are slow to load and unimpressive.If you truly want to play in the MS Dataverse, which I think is a smart long-term play, then use a product that integrates with Sharepoint and Teams. Also, the app is a POS.

Minpunten:

This software is a technical dead end. They will never have an open API and integrate with the web. But if you ask for it, they "will submit a feature request" despite the fact they actually have an API that developers can use.They will not help you export your data. They provide you with your files in an unstructured mess of separate .csv files and client folders.They answer the customer service number 1 out of 5 calls. They shuttle you to email, where the support doesn't read the emails you send.Their document automation team screwed up my documents. I sent templates in Georgia 11 and got back documents with a mixture of Times New Roman 12 and Georgia. I sent over documents with tables for signature blocks and got back documents where the signature block was done with an underline and space bar.

Smokeball user review

Pluspunten:

Product layout, user training, user support, and migration support from a prior product are all great. Feature-rich. Provide a workflow for tasks and has stage control for matters.

Minpunten:

I would like to be able to color code entries on the calendar. The workflow is easy to use but you cannot put tasks on the calendar as an event; they only go on as a task. I'm not great at using tasks that pop up for a given day. I would prefer that they could populate the calendar with a date and time.

Satisfied customer

Opmerkingen: I enjoy Smokeball and recently looked into Mycase. Do not consider Mycase. I was informed by Mycase that the integration process would be easy and would take 5-10 days. Those were lies. I have 4+ years in Smokeball with over 1000 files.

Pluspunten:

I am able to pull up any document while in court along with access to my client. I am able to conduct a conflict check within minutes.

Minpunten:

The billing program requires me to exit out and enter another program. Least favorite part of Smokeball.