Migrate from Smokeball to Salesforce Sales Cloud

Smokeball staff records (first name, surname, email, status, salutation) map to Salesforce User records. Email match is the primary key for owner resolution. Active Smokeball staff become active Salesforce Users with appropriate ProfileId; inactive staff become inactive Users. RoleId assignment follows the person's practice area if available.

Smokeball contacts linked as clients map to Salesforce Contacts. Each contact requires an AccountId lookup—Smokeball contacts without a primary organization attach to a default 'Individual Client' Account or the contact's address becomes Account.Name. Phone, email, address fields map directly. Tags migrate as a custom multi-select picklist.

Non-client contacts (opposing parties, opposing attorneys) map to Salesforce Contacts on a separate Account representing the opposing organization, or as individual Contacts attached to a generic 'Opposing Party' Account if no organization exists. The contact's relationship to the matter is preserved in a custom Role__c field on Contact.

Smokeball matters do not map to a single Salesforce object. We split each matter into: (1) an Account representing the client organization, (2) a Case for active legal work, and (3) optionally an Opportunity if the matter has a billing relationship. Matter type determines which RecordTypeId is assigned for page layout scoping. Person Responsible maps to Case.OwnerId by email match.

Smokeball matter types (family law, personal injury, estate planning, etc.) become Salesforce Record Types on Case and Account. Each Record Type enables a different page layout with type-specific pick-list values. The original Smokeball matter type is preserved in a Matter_Type__c custom field for reporting continuity.

Smokeball activities—tasks, document work, memos, emails—are logged as Salesforce Tasks. The original timestamp, owner (mapped by email), and subject are preserved. Task.WhatId links to the related Case or Opportunity. Task status defaults to 'Completed' for historical records. Reminder dates and priorities also migrate to maintain the original activity context for audit review.

Smokeball time entries (hours, description, date) become Salesforce Tasks with Type='Time Entry' plus custom fields Duration_Hours__c and Billing_Rate__c. AutoTime-generated entries preserve their source flag in a custom field. Time entries billable flag maps to a custom Is_Billable__c checkbox. Historical billing rates also migrate for reporting on client cost recovery and attorney utilization metrics.

Smokeball documents upload to Salesforce Files (ContentDocument/ContentVersion). Document Containers become Salesforce Libraries if the firm uses ContentWorkspace. Files are linked to the relevant Case via ContentDocumentLink. Inline images in notes are downloaded and re-hosted in Salesforce. Maximum file size is 25 MB per Salesforce default limit.

Smokeball trust account balances and ledger entries have no Salesforce native equivalent. We create custom fields on Account: Trust_Balance__c (Currency), Trust_Ledger_Entries__c (Long Text Area for audit reference), and Trust_Account_Number__c (Text). The original trust entries are preserved as a JSON blob in the text area for compliance reference.

Smokeball debtor fields (open debtors balance, other side, other side attorney) become custom fields on Account: Open_Debtors_Balance__c, Other_Side__c, Other_Side_Attorney__c. If the matter generated billing opportunities, the outstanding balance also appears on the related Opportunity via Outstanding_Balance__c. Collection status can be tracked using a custom picklist field for follow-up workflow automation.

Smokeball's hard costs (court filing fees, expert fees—paid to third parties) and soft costs (photocopying, postage—firm overhead) map to custom Decimal fields on Case: Hard_Costs__c and Soft_Costs__c. Whether these live on Case or a custom Cost_Tracking__c object depends on the firm's reporting requirements, decided during the mapping session.

Smokeball matter number and internal reference map to Case.CaseNumber and a custom Original_Matter_Number__c text field. Salesforce auto-generates CaseNumber, but we preserve the original Smokeball identifier for continuity and audit purposes. The custom field enables users to search by the legacy matter number directly from Salesforce without relying on the system-generated case number format.

Smokeball's Person Assisting field (secondary staff on a matter) maps to a custom Person_Assisting__c lookup field on Case pointing to User. The primary Person Responsible maps to Case.OwnerId. Both resolve by email match to Salesforce Users before migration runs. This allows multiple attorneys to be associated with a single matter while maintaining clear primary responsibility assignments.

Smokeball workflows are series of tasks tied to matter types. They do not have a Salesforce equivalent—Flow is the only automation engine in Salesforce in 2026, and workflow definitions are not portable. We export the workflow definitions as a reference document for the firm's Salesforce admin to rebuild in Flow Builder. The tasks themselves (created by workflows) migrate as completed Tasks.