Migrate from Smokeball to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Smokeball contacts (clients, opposing counsel, witnesses) map directly to Dynamics 365 Contact. Address fields, phone numbers, email addresses, and salutation translate directly. Primary Matter association becomes a custom lookup field on Contact. Duplicate detection runs on email address to prevent redundant contact creation during migration.

Smokeball staff records (attorneys, paralegals, admin) map to Dynamics 365 Users. Email address is used for matching. Inactive staff in Smokeball become inactive users in Dynamics unless you specify otherwise. Staff without email addresses are flagged for manual resolution before migration commits.

Smokeball Matters are the core legal entity and map to Dynamics Opportunities as the closest pipeline analog. Matter number becomes Opportunity name prefix. Matter type (practice area) maps to a custom Opportunity field or category pick-list. Open balance from Smokeball becomes a custom currency field on the Opportunity.

Smokeball practice areas such as Family Law, Personal Injury, Real Estate, Criminal Defense, and Estate Planning have no direct Dynamics 365 equivalent. We create a custom pick-list field on Opportunity and map each practice area value one-to-one to ensure consistent categorization in your new CRM system.

Smokeball activities tracked per matter map to Dynamics Activities. Document work, tasks, and emails map to Task and Email entities respectively. Original timestamps and owning staff are preserved during migration. Matter association links to the Opportunity via the regardingobjectid field to maintain context.

Smokeball time entries (hours, rate, description) do not map to a native Dynamics object. We can create a custom Time_Entry__c table in Dataverse linked to the Opportunity, or add time-entry fields directly on the Opportunity record for summary billing data. The custom table approach preserves full time-entry detail.

Smokeball's hard costs (court filing fees, expert fees) and soft costs (photocopying, postage) are legal billing constructs. Dynamics 365 Sales has no trust accounting model. We preserve cost records as custom fields for reference but they require manual reconciliation with your accounting software post-migration.

Smokeball trust accounting handles client retainers, escrow balances, and trust disbursements as a law-firm-specific financial model. Dynamics 365 Sales does not include a trust accounting module or any equivalent financial construct. These records must be handled separately in your practice management or ERP system post-migration.

Smokeball documents linked to matters re-upload to SharePoint via Dynamics SharePoint integration. If the SharePoint integration is not configured, documents attach as Notes or Attachments on the Opportunity record. File size limits and SharePoint site structure are configured before migration.

Smokeball captures the other side attorney and opposing parties directly in the Matter record. These contacts migrate as Dynamics Contacts with a custom Party_Role__c pick-list field indicating whether the contact is opposing counsel, opposing party, or witness role. Opportunity Contact Roles link these to the matter.

Smokeball tags applied to contacts or matters do not map to native Dynamics fields. We create a text field on both Contact and Opportunity capturing comma-separated tag values. Dynamics admins can later convert these to a proper multi-select pick-list or categories for improved filtering and reporting.

Smokeball records a debtor on each matter for billing purposes. This contact receives a custom Billing_Debtor__c boolean flag migrated to Dynamics Contact. Invoice routing and payment terms need to be reconfigured in Dynamics billing settings post-migration to ensure proper AR management.