Using the Call Screen
The call screen is where you read and change one call: who it is for, what it is about, who is scheduled, and the Details and Resolution documents. Open it by selecting a call on the Calls list, on a customer's calls, or anywhere else a call number is shown; New Call on the Calls list opens the same screen for a call that does not exist yet.
What is on the call screen when I open a call?
When you open a call, the call screen shows a header across the top, a sections rail down the left and the Details form filling the rest. Nothing on the call screen is a separate "edit mode": every field is ready to change where it stands, and a save bar appears at the bottom as soon as you change something.
- The header carries the call number, the call's type and status as coloured chips, the customer's name, and when and by whom the call was logged ("logged … by …"). Under them is the Comment, the one-line summary of the call that the Calls list shows.
- The header's buttons, on the right: Status (change the call status), the engineer control (Schedule engineer, or the name and time of the engineer already scheduled), and Save.
- The sections rail on the left: Details, Analysis, Actions, Existing calls and Attachments.
- The Details form: a card with the customer and the contact, the Call card, the Scheduled visits card (on a saved call, or on a new call once an engineer is picked), and the two documents, Details and Resolution, side by side.
The form's arrangement is a layout you can change for yourself: the small arrow beside Details in the sections rail opens your saved form layouts and Customize this layout…. A layout you save is yours alone: colleagues do not see it, and there is no layout of the call screen set for the whole company. To give a colleague the same arrangement, tell them which fields you placed where.
How do I see who logged a call and when?
Open the call and read the header at the top of the call screen: beside the customer's name it says "logged", then the date and time the call was logged, then "by" and the name of the ABM user who logged it. If ABM has no name on record for the person who logged the call, the header shows only the date and time. A new call that has not been saved yet says "Not saved · number assigned on save" there instead.
The same date and time is in the Date field on the Call card of the call's Details form. Date cannot be changed, is shown only on a saved call, and may be missing if your form layout leaves it out.
Do not read the person who logged the call from the Actions section of the call screen. Its Entered by column names who entered each ACTION on the call (a visit, a phone call, a note, an automatic status change), and its Logged column is when each action was logged, so the top row is usually the latest action, not the call's author. Only the header, and the Date field, are about the call itself.
To see who logged many calls at once, go to the Calls list: its Logged column is when each call was logged, and the Entered by column, which you can add from Choose columns… in any column heading's menu, is the ABM user who logged each call. On the Calls list, Entered by means the call's author; on the call screen's Actions list, it means each action's author.
How do I open the customer's record from a call?
Select the customer's name at the top of the call screen: it is a link, and it opens that customer's screen, with their contacts, notes, calls and engineer history. The same name on the customer card in the call's Details form is a link too, and goes to the same place.
- Open the call, from the Calls list or wherever you found it.
- Select the customer's name in the header of the call screen, beside the call number, where it says when the call was logged.
- Select the back arrow at the top left of the customer screen, or your browser's Back button, to return to the call. Pointing at the arrow shows Back (a screen reader calls it Back to customers), and it goes to the screen you came from, here the call.
To keep the call where it is and look at the customer beside it, use the small open-in-new button that appears beside the customer's name when you point at it instead (its tooltip reads Open the customer in a new tab), which opens the customer screen in a new browser tab. In the ABM Service desktop app it opens a new window, and the tooltip says in a new window.
If you have unsaved changes on the call, they are kept when you open the customer, and a reminder naming the call stays in the bottom-left corner until you come back and save or discard them.
How do I move between the sections of a call?
Use the sections rail on the left of the call screen: point at it to make it fly out, then select the section you want. The rail folds away again when the pointer leaves it. To keep the rail open all the time, select Sections (the button at the top of the rail, named Keep the sidebar open); select it again (Let the sidebar fold away) to let it fold. ABM Service remembers your choice on this computer, separately for saved calls and for new calls.
The rail's sections are grouped under three headings:
- Call: Details (the form and the two documents), Analysis (Priority, Job status, Work type and Cost centre) and Actions (everything logged against the call, with a count beside it).
- Customer: Existing calls (the customer's other calls).
- Documents: Attachments.
The line at the foot of the rail reads "Hover to peek · ≡ to keep it open · Details ▾ arranges the form". Moving between sections on the call screen never loses your work: the Details form, its documents and your cursor position stay exactly where you left them while you look at another section.
On a new call, only Details and Analysis can be opened; the other three sections are greyed out until the call is saved.
Why are some sections greyed out on a new call?
On a new call, Actions, Existing calls and Attachments in the call screen's sections rail are greyed out (dimmed) because they belong to a call that has been saved, and a new call does not exist in ABM until you save it. Select Save call at the top of the call screen, and all three open.
- Actions lists everything logged against the call, and a call that is not saved has nothing logged against it yet.
- Existing calls lists the customer's other calls, and opens as soon as the call is saved.
- Attachments opens once the call is saved, but only to say "Attachments are not available in this version." Attachments cannot be added to any call in this version.
While the call is new, pointing at a greyed-out section shows its name followed by "after the call is saved", selecting it does nothing, and the foot of the rail reads "The other sections open once the call is saved." The Actions count beside the rail item is not shown either. If you have placed the Actions list on the Details form with Customize this layout…, the panel says "The actions are listed here after the call is saved."
Details and Analysis are never greyed out. On a new call you can fill in the whole Details form, write in the Details and Resolution documents, and set Priority, Job status, Work type and Cost centre under Analysis before the first save; they are all saved together with the call.
How do I make the documents or the sidebar wider on the call screen?
Drag the gaps between the panels of the call screen. The hint along the bottom of the screen says the same: "Drag the gaps to resize · double-click the documents' gap to reset · Details ▾ arranges the form".
- The sidebar: drag the gap to the right of the pinned sections rail (its name is Resize the sidebar). Double-click that gap to put the sidebar back to its usual width.
- The fields and the documents: drag the gap between the form's cards and the documents.
- The Resolution document: drag the gap between Details and Resolution (Resize the resolution column). Double-click that gap to put it back to its usual width.
- Fold the Resolution away: select the Resolution heading. It folds to a narrow strip; select it again to open it. On a new call, Resolution starts folded.
With the keyboard, move to a gap with Tab and press the Left or Right arrow key; on the sidebar and Resolution gaps, hold Shift for bigger steps. ABM Service remembers the sidebar width, whether the sidebar is kept open, the Resolution width and the folded Resolution on this computer, one set for saved calls and one for new calls, so logging a call can look different from working one. The gap between the fields and the documents is kept with your form layout instead.
Why does the call screen show grey bars when it opens?
The grey bars are the call screen drawing itself before the call has arrived. The header, the cards and the documents appear straight away in the shape of what will be there, and each part fills in as soon as ABM Service has it: first the call's fields, then the Details document, then the Resolution document. While the call is still loading, the fields cannot be changed and Save stays off, with the reason "Loading the call…".
The Details document always opens before the Resolution document, because Details is what an engineer reads first. While Details is opening, the Resolution card says "Waiting for the Details document…". On a call with long documents and many pictures, the documents can take a few seconds.
What does "Call … was not found" mean on the call screen?
The call screen says "Call … was not found." when the call you opened no longer exists in ABM, for example because it was deleted after you found it. "Could not load this call:" followed by a reason means ABM Service could not read the call at all, for example because the connection dropped; "Could not load the lookups:" means the lists the form needs (types, statuses and so on) could not be read. In each case the call screen shows only its heading and the message. If you reached the call from another screen, the Back to calls arrow is there too: select it to go back to where you came from, then try again. If the call opened on its own, with no screen behind it, there is no arrow, and the call screen has no menu of its own: in a browser, open your company's ABM Service address again, which opens on Home; in the ABM Service desktop app, use Go in the title bar.
How do I get back to the calls list from a call, or refresh a call?
Select Back to calls, the arrow at the top left of the call screen. It takes you back to the screen you opened the call from, as you left it: the Calls list, a customer's screen, or the Scheduler. The arrow appears only when there is a screen to go back to: when a call was opened with nothing behind it, for example straight from ABM, there is no Back to calls arrow; the call screen has no menu, so use Go in the desktop app's title bar, or in a browser open your company's ABM Service address again. When you come back to the call with Back or Forward, it opens on the section you were reading.
Leaving a call with changes you have not saved does not throw them away: ABM Service keeps the call as you left it and shows it among your unsaved work, so you can come back and save it.
There is no Refresh button on the call screen, because a Refresh would throw away what you had typed. The call screen also does not update by itself: if somebody else saves a change to the same call while you have it open, you will not see it until the call is read again. To see the latest version of a call you have not changed, select Back to calls and open the call again; a call with nothing unsaved on it is read afresh when you come back to it. To put a call you have changed back to what is saved, use Discard in the Unsaved changes bar at the bottom of the call screen: it reads the call again, fields and documents, and drops your unsaved changes.