Smokeball

What It Does

Smokeball is a practice management platform built for small law firms. Its headline feature is automatic time tracking — it runs in the background and logs time spent in documents, emails, and calls without lawyers having to remember to start a timer. It also includes matter management, document automation (with a library of 18,000+ pre-loaded legal forms), billing, trust accounting, and a client portal.

The platform is Windows-first, with a desktop application that hooks into Microsoft Office. A Mac version and mobile app exist but are more limited. Smokeball was originally Australian (founded in Sydney) and expanded to the US market, where it now has its largest user base.

Who It’s For

Solo and small firms (2-10) — This is Smokeball’s sweet spot. The auto-time-capture is genuinely useful if you’re a solo who forgets to run timers or a small firm where every billable hour matters. The 18,000-form library covers high-volume practice areas well (PI, family, real estate, conveyancing).

Mid-size firms (11-50) — Workable, but you’ll start bumping into limits. Firms at this size often need deeper integrations, more granular permissions, and reporting that Smokeball’s analytics may not fully cover.

BigLaw / Enterprise — Not designed for this. Look at Clio Manage/Operate, iManage, or Aderant.

In-house teams — Skip this. Smokeball is a law firm tool, not an in-house legal ops platform.

What We Found

Smokeball has excellent review site ratings — 4.8/5 on Capterra with a 95% satisfaction rating across 747 reviews from 5 review sites. Users consistently praise the automatic time capture — it’s the feature most frequently cited in positive reviews. Data management capabilities are rated highly by 100% of users reviewing that feature, and 88% praise the ease of use.

Common complaints include occasional bugs and slowdowns, limitations with billing customisation and mobile functionality, and a narrower integration library than competitors. Updates can introduce glitches, and some features like billing options or the forms library could be more flexible.

Smokeball now publishes pricing across four tiers: Bill ($29/user/month), Boost, Grow (3+ staff), and Prosper+ (all-in-one). The critical AutoTime feature (automatic time tracking) is only included with Prosper+ — Grow users can purchase it as an add-on. Archie AI (document summarisation, matter automation) is available on Grow and Prosper+ plans. A 30-day free trial is available.

Smokeball is part of the Beck-controlled Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack Group, a portfolio of Australian-origin legal tech companies. The group also controls LEAP (practice management for small firms in Australia/UK) and InfoTrack (which acquired One Legal, LawToolBox, and the Legal Talk Network). Smokeball acquired FamilyProperty (a family law platform) in 2021.

Recent updates (2025): Archie AI now offers smarter prompts and improved matter-level automation (March), split invoicing across multiple parties within a matter (May), and granular matter-level access controls (June).

What We Haven’t Verified

• “18,000+ pre-loaded forms” — we haven’t counted them or tested coverage across jurisdictions
• AutoTime accuracy — vendor claim, not independently benchmarked
• Archie AI capabilities and accuracy for document generation and summarisation
• Integration count and depth with third-party tools (reported as narrower than competitors)

Platform Products

Smokeball Legal Software Other

Smokeball is a practice management platform for small law firms. Covers document automation, time tracking (including automatic time capture), billing, reporting, and client communication. One of the more established small-firm PM platforms alongside Clio, MyCase, and PracticePanther.

Company Info

• Sector: Legal Tech

What We Haven’t Verified

This page was assembled from publicly available information. Feature claims and workflow mappings are based on what the vendor and third-party listings publish — not hands-on testing or practitioner feedback.