Smokeball API
Smokeball is legal practice management and billing software used by small and mid-sized law firms to run matters, organize documents and emails, capture time (automatically and manually), and generate bills. It ties deeply into Microsoft Word and Outlook, streamlines document automati
What is Smokeball?
Smokeball is a cloud-connected practice management platform with a Windows desktop app and tight Microsoft 365 integrations. It helps firms manage case files end-to-end, from intake through billing, while automatically capturing work to improve realization.
Core product areas include:
- Matter Management (folders, statuses, stages, practice-area templates)
- Documents & Email (Outlook/Word integration, filing, version awareness)
- Time & Billing (automatic activity capture, rates, invoicing, payments)
- Trust Accounting (where enabled; ledgers, balances, reconciliation)
- Document Automation & Forms (templates, merge fields)
- Tasks, Calendaring & Workflows (checklists, reminders, dependencies)
- Reporting & Insights (matter progress, productivity, collections)
- Client Communication (secure messaging and file sharing in supported regions)
Common data entities:
- Matters (number, title, practice area, status, key dates, responsible staff)
- Contacts/Parties (clients, related parties, counsel, courts)
- Documents & Emails (file metadata, links to storage, versions, authors)
- Time Entries & Activities (date, duration, work codes, narratives, rates)
- Disbursements/Expenses (category, amount, billable flags)
- Invoices & Payments (status, line items, credits, write-offs)
- Trust Ledgers & Transactions (balances, deposits, disbursements)
- Tasks & Events (assignees, due dates, reminders)
- Users & Roles (permissions, ethical walls, billing rates)
The Smokeball Integration Challenge
Smokeball is optimized for attorneys and staff in Word/Outlook and a desktop client, which makes headless automation non-trivial:
- Hybrid desktop + cloud: Much of the user experience is desktop-driven with cloud synchronization, requiring careful session management and change detection.
- Document and email nuance: Files may live locally, in the cloud, or in DMS systems; metadata, filing locations, and versions must stay consistent.
- iManage coexistence: Mapping Smokeball matters to iManage workspaces, folders, and security requires deterministic naming and reliable bidirectional links.
- Automatic time capture: Translating activity capture into normalized, idempotent time entries across systems is delicate.
- Jurisdiction variance: Trust accounting features and compliance vary by region and licensing.
- Permissions & ethical walls: Matter privacy, staff roles, and billing entitlements must be respected.
- Long-running operations: Bulk file syncs, invoice runs, and workspace provisioning are asynchronous and need polling or webhooks.
How Supergood Creates Smokeball APIs
Supergood reverse-engineers authenticated client flows and network interactions to deliver a resilient API endpoint layer for your Smokeball tenant.
- Handles username/password and optional SSO/IdP-backed authentication securely
- Maintains session continuity with automated refresh, change detection, and health checks
- Normalizes matters, contacts, documents/emails, time, invoices, and trust objects into consistent schemas
- Aligns with customer entitlements, permissions, and ethical walls for compliant access
- Supports high-volume operations (bulk matter sync, time capture, billing) with polling or webhooks for long-running jobs
- Provides field-level idempotency and delta syncing for reliable two-way integrations
Getting Started
- Schedule Integration Assessment
Book a 30-minute session to confirm your modules, licensing, and authentication model.
- Supergood Builds and Validates Your API
We deliver a hardened Smokeball adapter tailored to your workflows and entitlements, including iManage mappings if required.
- Deploy with Monitoring
Go live with continuous monitoring and automatic adjustments as Smokeball evolves.
Use Cases
Matter & Workspace Provisioning (with iManage)
- Create Smokeball matters from your intake and automatically provision iManage workspaces - Stamp iManage IDs back to matters for traceability, and enforce naming/numbering conventions - Sync responsible attorneys and security settings across both systems
Time & Disbursement Capture from DMS Events
- Generate time entries when an iManage document is edited, emailed, or filed - Push disbursements for prints, scans, or third-party costs tied to a matter - Keep narratives, work codes, and rates consistent with firm policies
Document & Email Metadata Bridge
- Mirror document and email metadata (IDs, versions, authors, folders) between Smokeball and iManage - De-duplicate items and preserve immutable references for audits - Support cross-system search and matter file completeness checks
Billing, Invoices & Trust Visibility
- Push approved time to Smokeball billing; pull invoice statuses and balances for client portals - Surface trust ledger balances and recent transactions (read-only or write where allowed) - Trigger reminders and workflows based on aging or payment events
Technical Specifications
Authentication
Username/password with optional MFA and SSO/IdP support where enabled; supports service accounts or customer-managed credentials
Response format
JSON with consistent resource schemas and pagination across modules
Rate limits
Tuned for enterprise throughput while honoring customer entitlements and usage controls
Session management
Automatic reauth and cookie/session rotation with health checks
Data freshness
Near real-time retrieval of matters, documents/emails, time, invoices, and trust balances
Security
Encrypted transport, scoped tokens, and audit logging; respects Smokeball roles and ethical walls
Webhooks
Optional asynchronous delivery for long-running workflows (e.g., bulk document syncs, invoice runs, workspace provisioning)
Latency
Sub-second responses for list/detail queries under normal load; bulk syncs reflect underlying platform behavior
Throughput
Designed for high-volume matter and document metadata synchronization and time capture
Reliability
Retry logic, backoff, and idempotency keys minimize duplicates and support at-least-once processing
Adaptation
Continuous monitoring for UI/API changes with rapid adapter updates
Frequently asked questions
Supergood supports workflows commonly used by law firms, including Matters & Contacts, Documents & Email metadata, Time & Billing (AutoTime and manual entries), Invoices/AR, and (where licensed) Trust balances and ledgers. Coverage is scoped during integration assessment and aligned to your entitlements.
Yes. We map Smokeball matters to iManage workspaces, persist iManage workspace/folder/doc IDs in matter and document records, and keep metadata in sync. We can provision workspaces on matter open, update security based on responsible users, and attach document/version references for audit.
We reverse-engineer authenticated traffic and operate with secure, persistent sessions. Long-running tasks (e.g., bulk document enumeration, invoice runs) are handled asynchronously with job polling or webhooks. Changes are delivered as deltas to reduce load.
We can read and normalize auto-captured activities to create posted time entries via the API, including narratives, codes, and document/email references, subject to your licensing and permissions.
Where trust modules are enabled, we can read balances and transaction history and, if allowed by policy, create ledger entries. We never move funds; all payment processing remains with your firm’s systems and providers.
All requests are encrypted; actions are logged with user context and timestamps. We honor Smokeball permissions and ethical walls and support idempotency keys to prevent duplicate writes across retries.