- Autotime automatically drafts time entries from real computer activity, directly addressing the most common cause of under-billed hours
- The document automation library — 200+ matter types, 20,000+ court forms — is the deepest in the category for firms with high-volume, jurisdiction-specific filing needs
- Tight, well-built integration with Microsoft Word and Outlook for firms already standardized on that ecosystem
- Intuitive interface with reportedly straightforward onboarding and responsive support once past initial setup
- Automatic PDF merging with generated table of contents saves real assembly time on document-heavy matters
- On-premises installation option exists for firms with data-residency or IT policy requirements most cloud-only competitors can't accommodate
- Pricing for the tiers that contain the differentiating features (Grow, Prosper+) is not published and requires a sales call, making apples-to-apples comparison against transparent competitors difficult
- Windows-only desktop application with no native Mac client; Mac-based firms are pushed to a web/companion app experience
- No Google Workspace integration, a hard blocker for firms not already on Microsoft 365
- The billing and invoicing module — despite billing being the product's core pitch — is reported as harder to use than the time-tracking side
- Initial setup and data migration are consistently described as complex and time-consuming, adding real onboarding cost on top of the subscription price
Smokeball is a cloud-based legal practice management platform built around two core promises: capture every billable minute automatically, and generate documents faster than a human typing them from scratch. It was founded in 2012 by Hunter Steele, Jane Oxley, and Bart Vadala and is headquartered in Chicago, with additional offices in Sydney and London; it now operates as part of the LEAP/InfoTrack Group family of legal software companies following a series of acquisitions, and it has a technology partnership with Thomson Reuters. The product targets small and midsize firms — solo practitioners, boutique litigation shops, and multi-attorney practices in areas like family law, personal injury, real estate, and estate planning.
The problem it solves is a familiar one in hourly-billing practices: attorneys under-record time because manually logging every phone call, document review, and email costs them money in the exact moment they're supposed to be earning it. Smokeball's answer is Autotime, a background tracker that logs computer activity (which application was open, for how long, on which matter) and converts it into draft time entries an attorney reviews and approves rather than reconstructing from memory at 6 p.m. Layered on top is a document automation engine with thousands of jurisdiction-specific templates and forms, aimed at firms that produce a high volume of similar filings.
Pricing
Smokeball sells four tiers — Bill, Boost, Grow, and Prosper+ — priced per user, per month. The two entry tiers have published list prices: Bill starts at $49/user/month and covers invoicing, time and expense tracking, online payments, trust accounting and reporting, accounting integrations, and core matter management. Boost runs $89/user/month and adds task and calendar management, document management, a client portal, customizable dashboards, and full-text search.
Grow and Prosper+ — the tiers that unlock the features Smokeball is actually known for, including practice-area document automation, automated forms, Word/Outlook integration, and the cloud companion app — are not publicly priced. Smokeball requires a sales call and custom quote for both, and third-party pricing trackers report considerable inconsistency in what firms are actually quoted, with some reporting effective floors well above the published Bill/Boost numbers once add-ons are included. Treat any number you're quoted as a starting position to negotiate, not a fixed rate.
The AI features are separate paid add-ons layered on top of a qualifying tier, not included in the base price: Archie (an AI assistant with matter context) requires Grow or Prosper+, Communicate (AI messaging summaries) is available from Boost up, and Intake (AI-powered form generation) requires additional LeadPro and MatterFlow subscriptions on top of that. A firm that wants the full AI stack is stacking several line items onto an already custom-quoted base tier. No permanent free plan exists, though a free trial is offered without requiring a credit card up front. Budget for a real onboarding cost too — reviewers consistently flag initial setup and data migration as complex and time-consuming, which for a firm paying by the hour to get staff trained is a real cost even if Smokeball doesn't put a dollar figure on it.
Time Tracking and Billing
Autotime is Smokeball's headline differentiator, and it's genuinely useful for exactly the failure mode it targets: attorneys who lose billable time to memory gaps. It builds draft entries from actual desktop activity that get reviewed and confirmed rather than trusted blindly, which keeps a human in the loop on accuracy. The tradeoff is that the billing module itself — invoice generation, trust accounting workflows, payment application — is widely reported as clunky and harder to use than the time-capture side, which is a real problem for a tool whose entire pitch is billing efficiency. LawPay-based online payments are gated to Boost and above, so a Bill-tier firm doesn't get the online payment piece that pairs naturally with better time capture.
Document Automation
This is the other pillar, and it's the deepest library of its kind among general practice management platforms: 200+ pre-built matter types and access to 20,000+ federal and local court forms, with automatic population from matter data and the ability to merge documents into a single PDF with an auto-generated table of contents. For firms handling volume litigation, family law, or real estate closings, this can cut real hours off document prep. It's also locked behind the Grow tier, meaning a firm evaluating Smokeball on Bill or Boost pricing hasn't actually seen the feature that justifies the product.
Integrations and Platform
Smokeball integrates tightly with Microsoft Word and Outlook — email and document management run through that ecosystem rather than a browser-native interface. That's a strength for firms already standardized on Microsoft 365, and a real limitation for anyone else: there's no Google Workspace integration, and the desktop application is Windows-only, with Mac users limited to a companion/web app rather than the full native experience. The overall integration marketplace is narrower than competitors like Clio; what exists tends to be well-built, but firms with a specific tool they depend on should confirm it's supported before committing.
AI and Reporting
Archie (AI assistant with matter context) and Communicate (AI-generated messaging summaries) are recent additions layered onto the core product as paid add-ons rather than included functionality. Firm insights reporting, staff activity, and profitability reporting are reserved for Prosper+, meaning firms that most need visibility into whether the software is paying for itself have to buy the most expensive tier to get the reports that would tell them.
Who Should Use Smokeball
Good fit if you…
- Small-to-midsize firms (2–20 attorneys) billing primarily hourly who lose real revenue to under-recorded time
- High-volume practice areas — family law, personal injury, real estate closings, estate planning — that benefit from deep document/form automation
- Firms already standardized on Microsoft Word and Outlook that want tight native integration rather than a bolt-on
- Firms willing to pay for Grow or Prosper+ and go through a real onboarding process to get the automation that justifies the price
Look elsewhere if you…
- Solo practitioners and very small shops where the subscription cost and onboarding time outweigh the billable-hour recovery Autotime provides
- Mac-based or Google Workspace-based firms, since the core desktop experience is Windows/Microsoft-native
- Firms that want transparent, comparison-shoppable pricing without a sales call, or that need robust billing/invoicing workflows out of the box
Bottom Line
Smokeball earns its reputation on two genuinely differentiated features — Autotime and its document automation library — and firms that fit its profile (Microsoft-based, hourly billing, document-heavy practice areas) will likely see real time recovered that offsets a real cost. But the product is not the easy, transparent buy its marketing implies: the features that actually justify the spend sit behind custom-quoted tiers, the billing module ironically underperforms the time-tracking module, and the Windows/Microsoft lock-in rules out a meaningful slice of the market before pricing even enters the conversation.
If you bill hourly, run Windows and Microsoft 365, and produce a high volume of similar documents, get a demo and a real quote for Grow or Prosper+ — that's where the value actually lives, not on the published Bill/Boost numbers. If you're a solo practitioner, a Mac shop, or you need billing to be the easiest part of the software rather than the hardest, look elsewhere before signing an annual commitment.
Sources: - [Smokeball Pricing 2026 | Capterra](https://www.capterra.com/p/133656/Smokeball/pricing/) - [Smokeball Review: Cost, Features, Pros & Cons (2026) | Lawyerist](https://lawyerist.com/reviews/law-practice-management-software/smokeball/) - [Smokeball: Legal Practice Management Software — About](https://www.smokeball.com/about) - [Smokeball and Thomson Reuters Partner to Create the Premier Legal Technology Ecosystem](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smokeball-and-thomson-reuters-partner-to-create-the-premier-legal-technology-ecosystem-302724336.html) - [The Smokeball LEAP InfoTrack Group Completes Acquisition of LawLytics](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116005384/en/The-Smokeball-LEAP-InfoTrack-Group-Completes-Acquisition-of-LawLytics) - [Smokeball Review 2026: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons | CounselStack](https://www.counselstack.io/reviews/smokeball)