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Case study · Estate planning

Our delivery for a mid-sized APAC law firm

Work arrived like this.

A 328-field estate-planning questionnaire — answered on paper, then re-keyed into Smokeball by hand.

The client

A boutique Australian firm specialising in wills, powers of attorney and enduring guardianship — running on Smokeball, with a small team carrying a heavy intake load.

The kind of firm where every hour a solicitor spends re-typing a questionnaire is an hour not spent on legal work.

The problem

The same answers, typed twice

Clients filled out a long estate-planning questionnaire. Then a solicitor re-keyed every answer into the case-management system by hand — building the matter, the contacts, and the structured fields, one at a time.

Paper / PDF questionnaire
By hand
Case-management system
00:00
Minutes per intake
0/328
Fields keyed by hand
The shift

From manual re-entry to hands-off intake

A paper / PDF questionnaire
One online form, submitted once
300+ fields re-keyed by hand
Matter, contacts & fields created automatically
45–90 minutes of solicitor time
Hands-off — done in the background
Transcription errors & rekeying
One source of truth, mapped field-by-field
Documents chased and filed manually
Uploaded once, attached to the matter for you
How it works

The architecture, end to end

One online form feeds an automation that builds the entire matter in Smokeball — no one re-typing anything.

1The form

A guided, four-part intake form

Clients work through Parts A–D — personal and financial details, business interests, will and distribution, then powers of attorney and final wishes. Around 328 fields, captured once, with conditional sections that only appear when they're relevant.

LexOps · IntakeCapturing
Part A
Part B
Part C
Part D
Personal & financial
Full name
Margaret A. Whitlock
Date of birth
14 / 03 / 1958
Relationship
Married
Assets
Home · Super · SMSF
2The automation

One submission, 162 orchestrated steps

On submit, the form fires a single webhook into a Make.com scenario. It authenticates, creates the client contact, then routes by engagement type — single client, a couple on a joint matter, or a couple on separate matters — before building everything that follows.

LexOps · AutomationRunning
01Form submitted
02Webhook received
03Authenticate
04Create contact
05Route by engagement
Single client
Couple · joint matter
Couple · separate matters
06Create matter
07Populate fields
08Add memo notes
09Link executors & beneficiaries
10Upload documents
11Notify the firm
3The result in Smokeball

A matter that builds itself

The automation writes the contact card, populates the structured layout fields, links every role contact — executors, beneficiaries, attorneys and guardians — and uploads the supporting documents straight onto the matter. Everything maps field-by-field from the form.

LexOps · DeliveryAuto-populating
Contact card
NameMargaret A. Whitlock
Date of birth14 Mar 1958
Emailm.whitlock@email.com
Mobile+61 4xx xxx xxx
AddressSydney NSW
Layout fields
Disposal of body
EPA — financial trigger
Guardian — health care
Guardian — where to live
Linked role contacts
Executor · James WhitlockBeneficiary · 3 namedAttorney · James WhitlockGuardian · Sarah Whitlock
Matter documents
Existing will (2016).pdf
Family trust deed.pdf
Property title.pdf
SMSF deed.pdf
The impact
0minutes saved · per matter

Up to 90 minutes of manual data entry eliminated on every new client intake — time the team now spends on legal work instead of re-typing forms.

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