Ellos dicen
«Smokeball already reports on billings.»
Nosotros decimos
It does, and it has no record of the advert or referral that produced the client, because that predates the matter.
Para Smokeball
Some matters bill well and consume a fortnight nobody charged for.
Export billings from Smokeball, upload the leads behind them, and rank channels on work that was worth doing.
Sin clave de API Nada que instalar en SmokeballNada que instalar Sin tarjeta de créditoSin tarjeta
CloseRev reads a Smokeball export of billings or collections — the client's phone or email, the amount and the date — and matches it against the calls, forms and referrals that produced the enquiry. Smokeball's distinguishing feature is automatic time capture, which means a firm using it knows what a matter actually consumed as well as what it billed — and that combination makes a channel's real profitability measurable rather than assumed. Revenue with no traceable lead is reported as Direct / Unknown.
Comprobado por última vez con la documentación del propio Smokeball el 24 de septiembre de 2026.
La brecha
You know exactly how long every matter took. You have no idea which advert produced the ones that took too long.
Smokeball ve
Qué se vendió, a quién y por cuánto.
ninguna fila en común
Su cuenta publicitaria ve
El clic, la palabra clave, la llamada y cuánto costó cada uno.
El archivo
Qué debe contener la exportación.
Tres cosas sostienen la coincidencia: quién, cuánto y cuándo. Todo lo demás es opcional y solo cambia cómo se puede desglosar el informe.
- Necesaria
Client phone or email
On the client record from intake. Whichever the intake form captured is the key.
- Necesaria
Amount billed or collected
Collections where you have them; billings otherwise. Whichever you choose, use it on every row.
- Necesaria
Billing date
When the work was billed. Keep the matter open date too, so the cycle is visible.
- Opcional
Recorded time
The captured hours on the matter. This is the column that turns a revenue ranking into a profitability one.
Paso a paso
Cómo sacar el archivo de Smokeball.
Escrito para quien tiene Smokeball abierto en la pestaña de al lado. Los nombres de los informes varían según la edición, así que cada paso indica qué buscar.
-
Export billings by client
One row per billing with a client contact detail, the amount and the date.
-
Export the recorded time if you can
It is what makes this page different from every other legal page in the catalogue: revenue per hour by source rather than revenue by source.
-
Export your lead sources
Tracked numbers, the website form, directory listings, referral sources and any content that produces enquiries.
-
Take a year
Matters run for months, and a shorter file measures the retainer rather than the matter.
-
Upload
The join runs on the phone and the email, normalised, and declined enquiries stay in the file as the cost of the source that sent them.
Lo que recibe
La página que Smokeball no puede mostrarle.
Ingresos por canal, el número de ventas detrás de cada cifra y un grupo honesto para las que nadie pudo rastrear. Cifras de ejemplo, del caso práctico de la página Despachos de abogados, no de una cuenta de Smokeball.
Atribuidos a un canal$396,00066% de $600,000
Ventas coincidentes27 de 41solo alta confianza
Ticket medio$14,600por venta pagada
| Canal | Proporción | Ventas | Ingresos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 18 | $312,000 | |
| Meta Ads | 6 | $54,000 | |
| Email marketing | 3 | $30,000 | |
| Directo / Desconocido | 14 | $204,000 |
Las ventas sin coincidencia quedan en Directo / Desconocido. Nunca se reparten entre los canales pagados para que el total se vea mejor.
El argumento
Qué cambia cuando cada matter y el anuncio comparten una fila.
Automatic time capture makes profitability per channel measurable
Most firms can tell you what a matter billed. A firm capturing time automatically can also tell you what it consumed, without relying on anybody remembering to write it down.
Put a lead source beside that and the question changes from which channel produces revenue to which channel produces work worth doing.
The two rankings differ, sometimes sharply: a source producing high-value matters that each consume triple the hours can be the least profitable in the firm.
Nothing else in this catalogue can support that comparison reliably, because in most systems the time data is too incomplete to trust.
Where the recorded time is exported, the report gives revenue per recorded hour by source, which is as close to a profitability ranking as a marketing report gets.
Fixed-fee work rewards the channel that sends simple matters
A great deal of small-firm work is fixed fee — conveyancing, wills, straightforward applications — where the price is set and the effort is not.
On a revenue-only view every fixed-fee matter from every source looks identical, which conceals the entire question.
With recorded time, the sources separate immediately into the ones sending clean matters and the ones sending complicated clients at the same price.
That is usually the single most useful output for a firm doing volume fixed-fee work, and it is invisible in any platform report.
It also tells you where a price increase is justified, which is a commercial decision the marketing report can actually inform.
Enquiries the firm declined still cost the firm
Intake time is real: somebody takes the call, opens a file, assesses whether the firm can act, and frequently concludes it cannot.
A source producing a stream of enquiries outside the firm's practice areas has a genuine cost that never appears in a cost-per-client figure.
Keeping declined enquiries in the lead file makes that cost visible against the revenue the source did produce.
For a small firm where the person doing intake is also fee-earning, that cost is measured in billable hours rather than in admin time.
This is the reason a cheap lead source can be the most expensive thing a small firm buys.
Referrals are the largest channel and the least examined
Existing clients, other firms and local professionals produce most of the work in most small practices, and none of it arrives with an invoice attached.
That absence makes every paid channel look like a larger share of the firm than it is, and it hides the question of what actually causes referrals.
Recording the referral source at intake puts them into the same comparison on the same collected money.
The follow-on finding is usually the valuable one: which paid channels produce clients who go on to refer others, which makes those channels worth more than their own billings suggest.
Preguntas justas
«Smokeball ya hace eso». No exactamente.
Ellos dicen
«Our fees are fixed, so revenue per source is enough.»
Nosotros decimos
It is not, and fixed fees are exactly the case where it is not — the price is constant and the effort is not.
Ellos dicen
«Most work is referral.»
Nosotros decimos
Then the report will show that with a number, and the useful question becomes which paid channels produce clients who refer.
No. It reads an exported file, so your matters, documents and time entries stay where they are.
Billings or collections with a client contact detail, the amount and the date.
Revenue per recorded hour by source, which is a profitability ranking rather than a revenue one.
Because the price is the same from every source and the effort is not, so a revenue-only view conceals the whole question.
Yes. Intake costs a fee-earner's time, and a source producing unusable enquiries is expensive in the currency a small firm cannot spare.
A year, because matters run for months and a shorter file measures the retainer.
Collections where you have them. Whichever you choose, apply it to every row.
Yes, recorded at intake, and in small firms they usually dominate.
Yes, where the export carries one, and it is usually necessary for a general practice.
Any revenue with no traceable enquiry. Its size is stated rather than distributed.
A contact detail, an amount and a date, plus recorded hours and a practice area if you include them. No matter details, no documents, no time narratives. Encrypted in transit and at rest and deleted with the import.
Collected fees per source, revenue per recorded hour where time is included, and everything unmatched kept visible.
Por sector
Sectores que usan Smokeball.
Cómo se ve el informe una vez cargada la exportación, escrito para cada uno.
- Despachos de abogados¿Qué anuncios produjeron casos que realmente firmó?
- Derecho de familia¿Qué canales trajeron clientes que contrataron al despacho?
- Planificación patrimonial¿Qué canales trajeron clientes que contrataron al despacho?
- Derecho migratorio¿Qué canales trajeron clientes de migración que contrataron al despacho?
- Derecho concursal¿Qué canales generaron casos presentados?
Otros sistemas
También vale la pena leer.
¿Usa más de un sistema o está comparando? El método es el mismo; las columnas, no.
Archivo de ventas cerradas Actionstep Multi-practice law firms Archivo de ventas cerradas Qué exportar Archivo de ventas cerradas MyCase Small and mid-sized law firms Archivo de ventas cerradas Qué exportar Archivo de ventas cerradas Rocket Matter Law firms billing by the hour Archivo de ventas cerradas Qué exportar
Los 97 sistemas 
Smokeball y los demás nombres de productos y logotipos de esta página pertenecen a sus propietarios y se muestran para identificar el software del que procede un archivo. CloseRev no está afiliada a ellos ni cuenta con su respaldo, y no se conecta a ninguno: lee un archivo que usted exporta.
Empiece hoy
Dos exportaciones y lo sabrá.
Nada que instalar en Smokeball, sin clave de API y sin necesidad de haber rastreado nada hasta ahora. El año pasado funciona igual de bien que este mes.