How to Log a New Call
Logging a call creates it in ABM with a new call number. Start one with New Call at the top right of the Calls list, or Log a call on Home or on a customer's screen. The call screen then opens as New call, and the call exists only when you select Save call.
How do I log a new call?
Select New Call on the Calls list, pick the customer, type a one-line Comment and the Contact name, describe the problem in the Details document, and select Save call at the top right of the screen.
- Select New Call at the top right of the Calls list (or Log a call on Home).
- Type at least two letters of the customer's code, name, address or postcode in the Customer box, then choose the customer from the list.
- Type a one-line summary in the Comment box under New call at the top of the screen.
- Type the Contact name, and the contact's Phone, E-mail or Mobile if you have them.
- Check the Type, Charge and Job group in the Call card.
- Paste the customer's e-mail into the Details document, or type what they told you.
- Select Save call at the top right of the screen.
For a moment after you select New Call, the screen says "Preparing a new call…" while it reads your company's lists; if they cannot be read, it says "Could not load the lookups:" with the reason. While you work, the header reads "Not saved · number assigned on save". When the save finishes, ABM gives the call its number, and the screen becomes that saved call, with every section of the rail open. The call's Date is the moment you saved it.
Where is Log a call, and why can't I see it?
In ABM Service the button that starts a new call has two names, depending on the screen. It is Log a call on the Home screen and on a customer's screen, and New Call on the Calls list and on the Scheduler. Every one of them opens the same New call screen.
- Home — Log a call is among the buttons at the top of the Home screen, beside Calls and Scheduler.
- A customer's screen — Log a call is in the customer screen's header, and in the customer's Calls section; the call starts with that customer already chosen.
- The Calls list — New Call is at the top right of the Calls list's toolbar.
- The Scheduler — New Call is on the Scheduler's toolbar, and marking out free time on an engineer's row opens a quick call card for that engineer.
There is deliberately no Log a call or New Call on the call screen itself, including in its Existing calls section. To log another call for the same customer from a call, select the customer's name at the top of the call screen to open the customer, then select Log a call there.
On a customer's screen, Log a call is missing in two cases: while the customer is new and has not been saved yet, because a call has to belong to a customer that already exists, and while you are customizing the customer screen's layout, when the header shows the layout buttons instead. Select Save customer, or Done, and it comes back.
How do I find the customer when logging a call?
Type into the Customer box at the top of the new call's form; its empty box says "Search by code, name, address or postcode", and in Ireland it searches the Eircode (the Irish postcode). The list appears from the second letter and shows active customers only, matched by code first, then name, then address, then postcode. Use the Up and Down arrow keys and Enter, or the pointer, to choose one; press Escape to close the list. If nothing matches, the list says "No active customer matches." Beside each customer a small word says what your letters matched, such as code, name or address. To look at a customer before choosing it, point at its code or name in the list and select the small button that appears (its tooltip reads Open the customer in a new tab, or in a new window in the ABM Service desktop app): the customer screen opens there, and the new call stays as it is.
The Customer box on the New call screen offers active customers only, so an inactive customer or a prospect (an account that is not a customer yet) is not found there. There are two ways round it. Open the account's own screen from the Customers list, choosing Inactive or Prospect under Which accounts to find it, and select Log a call there: the new call starts with that account already chosen. Or, if a prospect has become a real customer, change Status to Active on its Overview and save it; from then on the Customer box finds it like any other customer.
When you choose a customer, the form shows their code, name and address, and fills in the contact's Phone and E-mail from the customer's own when those boxes are empty. Select Change beside the customer to pick a different one. After the call is saved, its customer cannot be changed.
A call started for a customer you are already looking at opens with that customer chosen: Log a call on the customer's screen, and New Call on the Calls list or the Scheduler while they are filtered to one customer (point at New Call and its tooltip names the customer). Only the customer is filled in then, not the contact.
What does a new call fill in by itself?
A new call on the call screen starts with sensible defaults, so check them rather than type them:
- Type: the first type in your company's list.
- Status: Open.
- Charge, Job group and Cost centre: the chosen type's defaults. Changing the Type replaces all three with the new type's defaults.
- Follow up: the type's follow-up person, or you when the type names nobody, with Follow-up date set to now. A call started from a customer's screen or a customer filter starts with the date empty; fill it in if you want a reminder.
The Comment and Contact name are required, and the Job group is too when the type raises a job; saving without them lists what is missing above the form. The call's Date is not on a new call's form, because it is stamped when you save.
You can open Analysis before saving to set the Priority, Job status, Work type or Cost centre; everything else in the rail opens once the call is saved.
There is no button that copies an old call into a new one. To log the same work again, open the old call from the customer's calls, copy its Comment and the text of its Details document, and paste them into the new call.
Can I schedule an engineer while logging a call?
Yes. Select Schedule engineer in the header of the new call, after choosing the customer, and pick the engineer and the time. The engineer appears on a Scheduled visits card marked "Pending · on save", and the visit is created together with the call when you select Save call. Until then nothing is booked. A new call saved with an engineer while its status is still Open is saved as Active, because booking a visit moves an open call to Active.
Opening Schedule engineer on a new call adds an engineer to it straight away. If you close the dialog without choosing anyone, a blank engineer reading Engineer… stays on the call, and Save call refuses with Pick the engineer to schedule. until you choose one, or open it and select Don't schedule to take it off. How to Schedule an Engineer for a Call has the rest.
On the Scheduler, marking out a time on an engineer's row opens a quick call card. Its Open the full page link brings you to this New call screen with that engineer and time already pending, and carries over what you had typed on the card.
How do I cancel a new call I do not want?
Select Cancel in the header of the new call. Cancel throws the unsaved call away and takes you back to where you started; nothing is written. While Save call is running, Cancel refuses, with the tooltip "The call is being saved — it can be cancelled once that finishes."
The Back to calls arrow is different: when you have started filling the call in, Back keeps the unfinished call so you can return to it, instead of throwing it away. It is kept only in that browser tab or desktop app window, until you close or reload it, and it does not follow you to another computer. To finish a call tomorrow, fill in what a save needs and select Save call now; the rest, the Details document included, can be added and saved later.
If the save fails, a bar along the bottom says "Not saved" with the reason, and nothing is lost from the screen: fix what it says and select Try again.