How to Save Changes to a Call
Every field on the call screen can be changed where it stands, and nothing is written until you save. Use Save at the top right of the call screen, or, on a saved call, the Save button in the Unsaved changes bar that appears along the bottom of the screen as soon as you change something. A new call is saved with Save call instead.
How do I save a change to a call?
Change the field or type in the document, then select Save at the top right of the call screen, or press Ctrl and S together (Ctrl+S). Ctrl+S works anywhere on the call screen, including while your cursor is inside the Details or Resolution document.
- Open the call from the Calls list.
- Change what you need: a field on the Details form, the Comment in the header, the Status, a field on Analysis, or the text of either document.
- Check the Unsaved changes bar at the bottom of the call screen. It names what you changed, for example "Comment, Contact", and adds "documents" when you typed in Details or Resolution (or says just "Documents" when the documents are all you changed).
- Select Save (or press Ctrl+S). The button reads Saving… while the call is written.
When the save finishes, the Unsaved changes bar disappears and the call screen shows the call as it is now saved. A save writes the whole call at once: every field, and both documents exactly as the editors hold them, pictures and formatting included.
Note: Wait until Saving… has finished before changing another field on the call screen. When the save finishes, the call screen reloads the saved call, and a field you changed while it was saving can go back to the saved value. Text typed into a document meanwhile stays on the screen but is not counted as an unsaved change, so the Unsaved changes bar does not list it and nothing warns you when you leave: if you typed while the call was saving, select Save again before you leave the call.
Tip: You do not need to go back to the Details section to save. Save in the header of the call screen saves a change made on Analysis just the same.
How do I undo my changes to a call before saving?
Select Discard in the Unsaved changes bar at the bottom of the call screen. Discard throws away every change you have not saved, in the fields and in both documents, and reads the call again so the screen shows what is saved. It cannot be undone, so check the list of changed fields in the bar first.
To undo only the last few edits inside a document, use Undo on that document's toolbar instead; it leaves the rest of your changes in place.
Once a call is saved, Discard only reaches back to the last save. To put a saved change to a field back, change the field back by hand and select Save again. Inside a document, Undo on its toolbar still steps back through your edits after a save, for as long as the call stays open on the screen and you have not selected Discard; select Save again to keep what Undo put back. A change to the status, type, job group, priority, job status or work type that you take back this way still leaves its Automatic Action in the call's Actions, and saving it back adds another one.
Warning: Discard also puts both documents back to their saved text. Anything typed into Details or Resolution since the last save is lost.
Why is the Save button greyed out on the call screen?
Save on the call screen stays off until everything a save would send has arrived, because a save writes the whole call, and saving while a document was still arriving would write an empty document over the real one. Point at Save to see the reason; the Unsaved changes bar shows it too:
- Loading the call… – the call's fields have not arrived yet.
- Loading the documents… – the Details or Resolution document is still opening.
- Loading the custom fields… – your company's own fields on the form are still being read.
- The custom fields could not be read. – a banner above the form says "The custom fields could not be read:" with the reason; select Retry on it. Until the read works, Save stays off so nobody overwrites values they cannot see.
Save is also off for the moment a save is already running (Saving…) and while an engineer's visit is being booked from the call screen, so one keystroke cannot send a second save on top of the first. Wait a moment and it comes back on.
If one of the two documents could not be opened at all, Save still works: the bar says "The documents will be left as they are." and the save changes the fields only.
What do the messages above the form mean when I save a call?
When a call cannot be saved as it stands, the call screen lists the problems above the form, in red, and sends nothing. Fix each one and save again. The messages are:
- Pick a customer. (a new call only)
- Pick a call type. and Pick a status.
- Give the call a comment — the one line the list shows. The Comment in the header is required.
- Name the contact. The Contact name is required.
- This type raises a job — pick its job group. Some call types create a job, and those need a Job group.
- A field is too long, for example The comment is longer than 300 characters. The limits are: Comment 300 characters, Contact name 50, E-mail 60, Phone and Mobile 25 each, P.O. number 30 and Customer ref 100.
A field with a problem is also marked on the form. Your company's own custom fields can add messages of their own, which appear on the field and in the same list.
What does "Not saved" mean on the call screen?
"Not saved" in the bar at the bottom of the call screen means ABM Service tried to save the call and the save failed; the reason is printed beside it. Your changes are still on the screen. Fix what the message says, or wait if the connection dropped, and select Save again. On a new call the same bar offers Try again.
ABM Service has no offline mode: the call screen saves straight to your company's ABM data, so a save needs a working connection. While the connection is down, keep the call screen open and do not close or reload the tab or window, because your unsaved changes are kept only there; save again once the connection is back.
Do not confuse that bar with the words at the top of a new call, after the New call heading, which reads "Not saved · number assigned on save". That line is not an error: it only means the new call has not been saved yet, so it has no call number. ABM gives the call its number when you select Save call, and the line then shows the customer and when the call was logged.
Why did an Automatic Action appear in the call's Actions after I saved?
When you save a change to a call's status, type, job group, priority, job status or work type, ABM Service adds an action called Automatic Action to the call's Actions list, naming who made the change and what each value changed from and to. This is the same record ABM has always written, so a call's history reads the same whichever program changed it. Changing only the cost centre, the comment, the contact or a document does not add one.