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Connect Smokeball

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Connecting Smokeball lets your Modules look up your matters and add to them, for example, "what is the latest on the Smith matter?", "add a note that I spoke with the client today" or "log half an hour on the Jones matter."

What your Modules can do

  • Search your matters by client name, matter number or description.
  • Read a matter's details and its most recent notes.
  • Add a note to a matter.
  • Create a task on a matter, with an optional due date.
  • Log a billable time entry on a matter, with the hours and a description of the work.

Each note, task and time entry is held for your approval first, and the approval names the matter and the staff member it is recorded as. Tasks and time are recorded as one staff member that you choose when you connect.

Your Modules do not touch invoices, payments, trust accounts or bank accounts, and they do not edit or delete anything in Smokeball.

Get access from Smokeball first

Smokeball does not hand out API access automatically. It is available to firms on the Prosper plan or above that have a developer in house or a third party developer.

  1. Read Smokeball's article on API access (linked from the Smokeball card in Raileon).
  2. Complete the firm API access request form it points to.
  3. Wait for Smokeball to approve it. Smokeball then gives your firm access to the Developer Console.

Connect Smokeball

  1. Open Apps

    In your dashboard, go to Apps in the left sidebar and select the Smokeball card.

  2. Create a private app

    In the Smokeball Developer Console, choose New App. Pick Private App and the Client Credentials sign-in. Assign exactly these scopes: matters/read, memos/read, memos/write, tasks/write, fees/write and staff/read.

  3. Copy the app's keys

    On the app's page, copy the client ID, the client secret and the API key.

  4. Paste them into Raileon

    Paste all three. Add the email address of the Smokeball staff member your Modules should record tasks and time as. Leave the region as us, or type au or uk if your account lives there.

  5. Test and save

    Select Test connection. When it passes, save. The Smokeball card shows Connected.

Good to know

  • The private app decides what your Modules can reach, so assigning only the six scopes above keeps the connection narrow. If a Module says Smokeball refused something, check the scopes on the app.
  • Smokeball saves notes, tasks and time a moment after it accepts them, so a new one can take a few seconds to show up in Smokeball.
  • Smokeball slows down apps that send many requests at once. If your Modules are slow to answer, give it a minute.
  • If the staff member leaves your firm, change the email by reconnecting.

Disconnect Smokeball

Open Apps, find the Smokeball card, and select Disconnect. You can also delete the app in the Developer Console to cut off access right away.