MatterFirst vs Smokeball

MatterFirst and Smokeball,
compared honestly.

Known for AutoTime automatic time capture and a large library of automated Australian legal forms.

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Encrypted at rest and in transit Australian data residency Hosted on AWS No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

Last reviewed

MatterFirst vs Smokeball: what is the difference?

Smokeball's strength is AutoTime, which captures billable time in the background, plus a library of over 20,000 Australian legal forms. MatterFirst's is document extraction: reading a contract and filling matter fields from it. Smokeball prices per user on 36-month terms; MatterFirst prices per workspace with no lock-in.

The MatterFirst workflow builder, showing stages, steps and their conditions on a canvas
The workflow builder, which is the thing most of this page is really about. A practice manager builds and changes this directly, and every change is versioned.
MatterFirst and Smokeball, side by side
MatterFirst Smokeball
Origin Australia (NorthCape Technology, Melbourne) Australia and United States
Status Active Active
Pricing Per workspace from $199/month, users included Four plans, per user per month ex GST on 36-month terms: Bill from $49, Boost from $99, Grow from $189, Prosper+ from $239. AutoTime is $39 per month extra on Grow and included in Prosper+.
Data residency Your chosen AWS region, including AI inference Not published. Ask the vendor where inference runs, not only where files are stored.
Client portal Included on every plan, no per-client charge Not published
AI document extraction Included, with a monthly AI balance on every paid plan Not published
Contract term No lock-in Published pricing is based on 36-month terms

Smokeball details are drawn from the source linked at the foot of this page and were checked on 29 July 2026. Where we have not verified something, this page says so rather than estimating. On pricing: ours is published, per workspace rather than per seat, and is the list price with users included. A competitor's price appears here only where they publish it themselves, on the basis they publish it, and never as our estimate of what you would pay.

What Smokeball is good at

  • AutoTime captures time in the background rather than relying on memory
  • Library of over 20,000 standard legal forms and documents
  • Deep Microsoft Office integration

Things to weigh

  • Published pricing is per user per month on 36-month contracts
  • AutoTime, its best-known feature, is an add-on below the top tier

Which one should you pick

Best fit, stated plainly.

We sell one of these, so weigh this accordingly. It is still the honest read, and if your situation is in the right-hand column we would rather you knew.

Choose MatterFirst when

  • A 36 month term does not suit you
  • You would rather not have the headline feature sit behind an add-on below the top tier
  • You want to choose the AWS region your data sits in

Choose Smokeball when

  • You bill hourly and want time captured in the background rather than from memory
  • You want the largest library of automated Australian legal forms
  • Deep Microsoft Office integration is central to how your team works
Australian questions worth settling before you choose
MatterFirst What to ask Smokeball
Trust accounting Built for Australian practice: per-matter ledgers, receipting, reconciliation, and a compliance review workflow covering New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. Your external sign-off is recorded against the jurisdiction, and obtaining it remains your firm's responsibility. Ask which Australian jurisdictions the trust module was built for, and whether it is local or adapted from another country's rules.
Trust ledger history on migration The importer handles trust transactions, so your ledger history comes across with the rest of the migration. Ask what format Smokeball exports trust history in. You need it for the seven-year retention period under s147 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law regardless of where you move.
PEXA Connected to your firm's PEXA account so settlement dates and workspace details land against the matter. Set up with us rather than self-serve. Not published. Ask whether PEXA is native, provided through a partner, or absent.
Xero Invoices go out to Xero and payments come back, so the ledger and the matter agree without rekeying. Not published. Ask whether the accounting integration writes back or only exports.
GST Line amounts are GST-exclusive and GST is calculated on the taxable subtotal at your organisation's rate, which is standard Australian practice. Not published. Ask to see a sample invoice with mixed taxable and non-taxable disbursements.
Data and AI location The AWS region your firm chooses, Sydney by default. Document extraction and matter questions are processed in that same region. Not published. Ask where inference runs, not only where files are stored. The two answers are frequently different regions.
Support The people answering are in Victoria. We do not publish a support SLA, and we would rather say that than imply one. Ask which timezone support runs in, and what the escalation path is outside those hours.

The right-hand column is questions rather than answers on purpose. We have not verified how Smokeball handles Australian trust rules, PEXA or GST, and inventing an answer for them is the mistake that put false claims on this page before. Ask all three of your shortlisted vendors and compare what comes back.

If you decide to move

What actually transfers out of Smokeball.

Contacts, matters, documents, time entries, invoices, billing codes and leads import from a CSV export. Templates, court forms, email and calendar history do not. Trust ledger history cannot be imported yet, which is the one on that list that is genuinely a gap rather than a scoping decision.

The full version, including who does which part, what governs the timeframe and what to ask Smokeball to send you, is on its own page.

Read the switching guide

MatterFirst is a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built by NorthCape Technology, covering matters, documents, trust accounting, billing and a client portal, with data hosted in the AWS region the firm chooses.

MatterFirst suits Australian firms up to about twenty seats wanting AI document extraction with onshore processing and per-workspace pricing. Smokeball suits firms that bill hourly and want time captured automatically, and who are comfortable with a multi-year term. MatterFirst is the weaker fit if you bill hourly and want time captured in the background rather than from memory.

Evaluation checklist

Take this to every vendor, including us

The questions worth asking any Australian practice management vendor, including the ones we answer badly. No form, no email required: read it here or download the markdown and put it in front of every platform on your shortlist.

Read the checklist Download it

Reviewed by Liam Killingback

Co-founder and Technical Director, NorthCape Technology

Builds the MatterFirst platform. Engineer rather than lawyer, which is why the pages he reviews cite sources instead of asserting legal positions.

Last reviewed

How we check this

  • Every claim about another platform comes from that platform's own public documentation or pricing page, linked from the page it appears on.
  • Where a vendor does not publish something, the page says 'not published' rather than estimating it. A guess that reads as a fact is the failure mode this rule exists to prevent.
  • Every page carries the date its competitor facts were last checked, so you can see how fresh they are rather than assuming.
  • We sell one of the products being compared. Every page says so, and every page states the cases where the competitor is the better choice.
  • If you find something here that is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it and re-date the page.

FAQ

Questions firms ask

How does MatterFirst pricing compare to Smokeball?
MatterFirst prices per workspace from $199 per month with users included, rather than per seat. Four plans, per user per month ex GST on 36-month terms: Bill from $49, Boost from $99, Grow from $189, Prosper+ from $239. AutoTime is $39 per month extra on Grow and included in Prosper+.
Can MatterFirst import my data from Smokeball?
Yes. We offer a Migration Package for firms moving matters, contacts, documents and templates into MatterFirst, scoped per firm. Smaller teams can also start manually and add migration support later.
What does MatterFirst do that Smokeball does not?
The honest answer is that we can only speak to what we have verified. MatterFirst runs Document AI extraction and matter Q&A inside the AWS region your firm chooses, includes the client portal and automations on every plan rather than metering them, and prices per workspace. We do not publish comparisons of features we have not checked on the other platform, which is why several cells in the table above read 'not published' rather than carrying a claim.
Where is my data stored?
In the AWS region your firm chooses. Sydney (ap-southeast-2) is the default for Australian firms. Matter data, documents, extraction and matter questions all stay in that region. The one exception is the first step of Document AI, reading the document itself, which runs on Azure AI Document Intelligence in Azure's Australia East region. Both regions are in Australia.
How much does MatterFirst cost?
Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $199 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly AI balance in Australian dollars, the client portal and automations. Extra users are billed only past the included seats. Full plan inclusions are on the pricing page.
Can I get my data out if I leave?
Yes. Your matters, contacts, documents and time records are exportable on request, and there is no lock-in contract. We would rather you were able to leave and chose not to.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, a 14 day guided trial on Solo, Practice or Firm. It is guided rather than self-serve because a practice management system tells you very little until it has your real matters in it, and we would rather help you load them than leave you looking at an empty workspace.
Who builds MatterFirst?
NorthCape Technology, a Melbourne-based software company. MatterFirst is built in Australia for Australian legal practice, which is why trust accounting and Xero are first-class rather than regional add-ons, and why PEXA and InfoTrack are on the roadmap rather than absent from it.
Is MatterFirst suitable for a firm of my size?
It is designed for solo practitioners up to firms of roughly twenty seats. Below that, Solo carries the full platform for one user. Above it, the platform works but you should expect to talk to us about migration and rollout rather than signing up online.

Weighing MatterFirst against Smokeball?

14 day guided trial with your own matters, and a migration conversation if you need one.

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