Smokeball accounting and trust: What your bookkeeper still reconciles

The short answer

Smokeball keeps your client trust ledgers and billing. Your general ledger lives in QuickBooks Online, fed by a one-way sync of money movements. Your bookkeeper still reconciles three things each month: trust to the bank and client ledgers, operating to the bank, and Smokeball to QuickBooks.

Smokeball describes itself as focused on client-based accounting, and it does that well. It does not hold your firm's overhead, payroll or profit, and its sync to QuickBooks deliberately leaves some activity behind. Knowing exactly what stays in Smokeball is what makes the month-end work predictable.

This post covers what Smokeball handles on trust, what the QuickBooks sync sends and skips, a worked example of where the two systems diverge, and the reconciliation list your bookkeeper owns. For how Smokeball compares with Clio, MyCase and PracticePanther, see our hub on bookkeeping for Clio, MyCase, PracticePanther and Smokeball.

This post is part of our coverage of law firm accounting and bookkeeping services. For the wider picture, see our complete guide to bookkeeping for law firms.

What Smokeball handles, and what it hands to QuickBooks

Smokeball owns the client side of the money: time, billing, invoices, receipts, trust deposits and payments, check printing, trust reconciliation and trust reports. QuickBooks owns the firm side: the general ledger, profit and loss, payroll and back-office spending such as rent. That split comes from Smokeball's own guidance on using the two together (Smokeball help center).

Smokeball does not keep a general ledger, and it does not connect directly to your bank. Its team describes the product as focused on client-based accounting only (Smokeball community).

On the trust side, Smokeball gives you:

• Client and matter trust ledgers that update as you record deposits, payments and transfers.

• A trust bank reconciliation workflow. You enter the statement period, tick off transactions, then print and sign the Bank Reconciliation Report (Smokeball help center). Past reports stay available as PDFs.

• Three-way reconciliation that compares the trust bank balance, trust ledger and client ledgers, as Smokeball describes its Bill product (D.C. Bar).

That same D.C. Bar post carries a caveat: using the software does not by itself ensure compliance with trust accounting rules, and it does not cover operating account management. Those two gaps are exactly where the bookkeeper's work sits.

What the QuickBooks Online sync sends, and what it skips

The sync is one-way, from Smokeball Billing to QuickBooks Online, and it only sends money that actually moved. Anything that is owed, earned on paper or shuffled between matters stays in Smokeball (Smokeball help center).

Synced items arrive in QuickBooks as journal entries. During setup you map up to ten accounts, from the operating and trust bank accounts to legal fee income, hard and soft cost recovery, an operating liability for retainers, surcharge, and the trust liability.

Three setup facts change how the books behave:

• Plan level decides whether trust syncs. The sync is available on Bill, Boost, Grow and Prosper+, but Bill only gets the general ledger integration, not trust.

• QuickBooks Self-Employed will not work. It has no chart of accounts, which the integration needs. Any other QuickBooks Online plan is fine.

• Timing of the switch-on matters. If you already use QuickBooks, Smokeball advises entering all existing trust and operating retainer balances in Smokeball first. Turn the sync on too early and your accountant inherits extra journal entries to unwind.

Hard costs have a choice built in: you can map client cost recovery and advanced-cost checks to an other current asset rather than income and expense. That keeps costs you expect to recover off the profit and loss until the client pays.

Worked example: the same month in Smokeball and in QuickBooks

Because the sync skips invoices and matter-to-matter transfers, Smokeball and QuickBooks can both be correct and still show different numbers. Here is one client, Lopez, across September.

• Lopez deposited $9,000 into trust in August for Matter A. The deposit synced to QuickBooks.

• On September 10, with written authorization, the firm moved $3,000 of that money to Lopez's new Matter B.

• On September 28, the firm invoiced Lopez $4,500 for Matter A work, payable from operating funds. Lopez paid on October 12.

Two things follow.

The client-ledger leg of your three-way reconciliation has to come from Smokeball. The total trust liability agrees, but the matter-level split exists only in Smokeball, because the transfer never synced. A reconciliation that uses QuickBooks for client balances will be wrong as soon as money moves between matters.

QuickBooks shows September as cash basis whether you want it or not. The $4,500 appears as income in October, when the payment syncs. If partners want billed revenue or receivables by month, those numbers come from Smokeball, or the bookkeeper records a month-end accrual in QuickBooks and reverses it when the payment arrives.

For the client-ledger side done properly, see our IOLTA client trust ledger example.

What your bookkeeper still reconciles every month

Smokeball makes each step faster. None of them happen on their own. In order:

1. Reconcile each trust bank account in Smokeball. Tick off the statement, then print and sign the Bank Reconciliation Report. Firms with more than one trust account, for example across states, do this once per account.

2. Complete the three-way reconciliation. The reconciled bank balance, the trust ledger and the total of every client and matter ledger in Smokeball must agree. Uncleared checks and deposits explain most differences; anything else needs tracing before the month closes.

3. Tie QuickBooks to Smokeball. The trust bank and trust liability balances in QuickBooks should equal Smokeball's totals. Look for a transaction entered before the sync was switched on, or a reversal that did not carry across.

4. Reconcile the operating account in QuickBooks. Synced payments and advanced-cost checks sit alongside everything that never touches Smokeball: payroll, rent, software, card processing fees and partner draws.

5. Settle the revenue picture. If partners want accrual numbers, record receivables from Smokeball as a month-end accrual and reverse it next month.

6. Check recoverable costs. If hard costs are mapped to an asset, compare that balance with the costs Smokeball still shows as unrecovered.

7. Keep the evidence. File the signed reconciliation reports and the three-way summary for the month.

For what a state bar expects step 2 to show, see what a three-way reconciliation actually requires. For step 7, our guide to preparing for a state bar trust account audit lists the records auditors ask for.

The same split between practice system and ledger shows up with MyCase and PracticePanther. See what MyCase Accounting handles and what goes to your general ledger and keeping PracticePanther trust and operating books in sync with QuickBooks Online.

How Numetix works with Smokeball firms

Numetix runs the seven steps above for founder-led law firms on Smokeball and QuickBooks Online. AI handles bank matching and categorization; a CPA-overseen finance team completes and signs off the three-way reconciliation and the close.

We treat Smokeball as the record for clients, matters and trust, and QuickBooks as the record for the firm. That means we never rebuild client balances in QuickBooks, and we report receivables and billed revenue from Smokeball when partners want them.

A practical first step: send us last month's signed Smokeball bank reconciliation report and your QuickBooks trust liability balance for the same date. We will tell you whether they agree, and if not, where the difference came from. Book 30 minutes with our team. More on how Numetix serves law firms.

Frequently asked questions

Does Smokeball have a general ledger? No. Smokeball handles client and trust accounting. Its own guidance puts the general ledger, profit and loss, payroll and back-office spending in QuickBooks Online.

What does the Smokeball QuickBooks integration sync? Only money that moved: invoice payments, trust and operating retainer deposits, trust checks, advanced-cost checks, and reversals of those. Time entries, expenses, invoices and matter-to-matter transfers stay in Smokeball.

Does Smokeball sync trust to QuickBooks on every plan? No. The Bill plan gets the general ledger integration only. Trust integration needs Boost, Grow or Prosper+.

Why don't my Smokeball invoices show in QuickBooks? The integration does not send invoices or unpaid balances. Receivables live in Smokeball, and QuickBooks records the income when the payment syncs.

Can I reconcile trust in QuickBooks instead of Smokeball? The bank side, yes, but not the client side. Matter-to-matter transfers never reach QuickBooks, so only Smokeball holds accurate balances by client and matter.

Will transactions entered before I turned on the sync appear in QuickBooks? No. Only transactions entered after the integration is switched on are sent.