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How to Set a Call's Priority, Job Status, Work Type and Cost Centre

The Analysis section of the call screen holds four fields that classify a call for reporting and for the office's own planning: Priority, Job status, Work type and Cost centre. Open it from the sections rail on the left of the call screen, under Call. Every list in it is your company's own.

How do I set the priority of a call?​

Open the call, select Analysis in the sections rail on the left of the call screen, choose a value in Priority, and select Save. The other three Analysis fields work the same way.

  1. Open the call from the Calls list, or start a new one.
  2. Point at the sections rail on the left of the call screen and select Analysis.
  3. Choose the Priority (and, if you need them, the Job status, Work type and Cost centre).
  4. Select Save at the top right of the call screen, or press Ctrl and S together (Ctrl+S). You do not need to go back to Details first.

Analysis works on a new call too, before it is saved: it is the one section besides Details that a new call can open, and what you choose is saved with the new call.

What each field is for:

  • Priority – how urgent the call is, from your company's list of priorities.
  • Job status – the status of the call's job, which is a different list from the call's own status: a call can be Active while its job is, for example, waiting for parts.
  • Work type – the kind of work involved.
  • Cost centre – where the cost of the work is booked. This is the one Analysis field a call type can fill in: choosing a Type on the Details form sets the Cost centre to that type's default, or empties it when the type has none.

The Job group, which also classifies the job, is on the Details form's Call card, not on Analysis.

Why is a field missing from the Analysis section of a call?​

A field is left off the Analysis section when your company has not set up any values for it in ABM, because a list that opens onto nothing is no use to anyone. Many companies use only some of the four. If none of them has been set up, the section says "None of these have been set up on this system."

There is one exception: when a call already carries a value, its field is shown even if the list is empty or the value has since been deleted from the list. The value appears as a choice of its own, so you can see it, and nothing is silently kept or dropped when you save. ABM Service has no screen for changing these lists: they are set up in ABM itself, so ask whoever looks after ABM at your company if you need a value added.

How do I remove a priority or cost centre from a call?​

Point at the field in the Analysis section of the call screen and select the small × button at its right-hand end: Clear the priority, Clear the job status, Clear the work type or Clear the cost centre. The field goes empty, and the change is written with the next Save. The lists have no "Not assigned" entry; an empty box is how a call says it has none.

When you save a change to the Priority, Job status or Work type of a saved call, ABM Service adds an Automatic Action to the call's Actions, recording who changed it and what it changed from and to. A change to the Cost centre alone does not add one.

Tip: The four Analysis fields can also be placed on the Details form itself with Customize this layout…, in the small menu beside Details in the sections rail, if you set them on most calls. They are the same values either way.