Billing is one of the core operational challenges in any law firm. Whether your practice uses hourly billing, flat fees, retainers, or hybrid fee arrangements, accuracy and transparency matter. Missed time entries reduce revenue, unclear invoices cause client friction, and manual billing often consumes hours every week.
Smokeball approaches billing differently from most legal practice management systems. Because it tracks activity in the background as you work, the billing process becomes more consistent, complete, and less dependent on remembering to log every minute. This guide explains how Smokeball Billing works, why automatic time tracking can significantly increase collected revenue, and how firms can integrate it into their daily workflow without slowing down case work.
Note: Smokeiball.com is an independent resource. This guide is based on professional usage patterns in U.S. law firms and is not affiliated with Smokeball, Inc.
How Smokeball Billing Fits Into Daily Legal Work
The billing workflow in many firms looks like this:
- Work happens throughout the day (emails, drafting, calls, meetings).
- Someone later tries to reconstruct what happened.
- Many minutes (and sometimes hours) go unbilled.
Smokeball changes this by capturing work activity automatically, linking it to the correct matter, and presenting it in a way that makes invoicing easier and more accurate.
Attorneys often describe the difference like this:
“Instead of remembering what I worked on, I simply review what was already captured.”
This shift alone can meaningfully increase revenue without changing workload.
Automatic Time Tracking (The Core of Billing in Smokeball)
Smokeball records activity quietly in the background:
- Drafting documents in Microsoft Word
- Editing templates or forms
- Reviewing or sending emails in Outlook
- Making notes inside matters
- Logging tasks and calendar events
Every action is associated with a matter and time duration.
Why this matters:
Most firms lose 20–40% of billable time each month due to memory gaps.
Automatic tracking protects against that loss without adding administrative burden.
Example from practice
A probate attorney might spend only 2–4 minutes answering a quick client email.
Individually, those minutes seem small.
Across a month, they can add up to several billable hours.
Smokeball ensures they are captured.
Billing Methods Supported in Smokeball
| Billing Type | Supported? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly billing | Yes | Uses automatic or manual time entries |
| Flat fees | Yes | Can assign fees per matter or per task |
| Contingency | Partially | Case notes tracked; revenue recorded on settlement |
| Retainers / Trust funds | Yes | Built-in trust accounting tools |
| Hybrid billing | Yes | Mix hourly + fixed portions as needed |
The flexibility allows firms to model real fee arrangements rather than forcing their workflow to match the software.
Creating Invoices in Smokeball
Once time and activities are captured, invoices can be generated in a structured format.
Typical Workflow:
- Select the matter.
- Review time entries and edit if needed.
- Add flat fees or expenses.
- Apply the appropriate billing rate or pricing agreement.
- Generate invoice PDF or send electronically.
Invoices can be:
- Standard hourly itemized
- Flat fee statements
- Combination/hybrid layouts
Many firms appreciate that invoices can include plain-language explanations, reducing the number of “invoice clarification” calls from clients.
Trust Accounting and Retainers
Smokeball supports trust accounting, which is essential for compliance with state bar rules.
You can:
- Hold retainers
- Request replenishment when balances run low
- Track trust funds separately from operating revenue
- Generate audit-ready ledgers
This is a significant advantage for family, immigration, and estate practices that rely heavily on retainers.
Reporting and Financial Oversight
Smokeball provides billing-focused dashboards and reports, such as:
- Work completed vs. work billed
- Individual staff productivity
- Matter profitability
- Time capture trends over the month
This helps partners and office managers identify patterns such as:
- Which matters are consuming more time than expected
- Which attorneys under-record billable activity manually
- Whether flat fees need to be reevaluated
It is not just billing — it is operational intelligence.
Common Billing Issues and How Smokeball Helps Avoid Them
| Problem in Many Law Firms | How Smokeball Addresses It |
|---|---|
| Attorneys forget to record time | Automatic time tracking captures work in real time |
| Flat fees don’t reflect actual effort | Matter activity reports reveal true workload |
| Clients question invoices | Plain-language entries and activity logs build trust |
| Admin staff spends hours reconciling | Integrated billing + time capture reduces manual entry |
Billing becomes less about reconstruction and more about transparency.
Take Stock
Smokeball Billing is built around a simple idea:
legal work is valuable, and value should not be lost due to memory or manual processes.
By capturing daily activity, integrating with legal workflows, and providing structured billing tools, Smokeball helps firms stay accurate, efficient, and fair — both to clients and to themselves.
For firms that have struggled with incomplete billing or inconsistent invoicing, adopting automatic time capture can have a measurable and positive financial impact within weeks.
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