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Using the Calls List

The Calls list is where you find, filter and open your company's service calls. Open it from the navigation menu by choosing Calls. The filter rail runs down the left-hand side, the toolbar sits across the top, and the calls themselves fill the rest of the screen.

What is the Calls list for, and how do I get to it?​

The Calls list is the office's working list of service calls: every call logged in a date window, with who is scheduled to do it and how far they have got. To reach it, open the navigation menu and choose Calls.

The Calls list shows your whole company's calls, whoever logged them, not only your own. To see just the calls you logged, add the Entered by column from Choose columns… in any column heading's menu then tick your own name in that column's filter and press Apply.

On the Calls list you can:

  • Narrow the list by date, by whether an engineer has been scheduled, by customer, by call type, by call status, by action status and by engineer, using the filter rail on the left.
  • Search for a call by its number, reference, comment or notes, using the Search calls box on the toolbar.
  • Open a call by selecting its call number.
  • Log a new call with New Call at the top right.
  • Schedule an engineer for a call nobody has been given yet, straight from the Engineer column.
  • Show the customers on a map with the Map button beside the search box.

The filter rail can be folded away with the Filters button at the start of the toolbar, to give the calls more room. A number on that button, shown whether the rail is open or folded away, counts the entries ticked in the rail's lists, plus one when a customer is picked. With the list's opening Open and Active call statuses ticked it shows 2.

Why does the same call appear more than once on the Calls list?​

A call appears once for every engineer visit scheduled on it. Each row of the Calls list is one scheduled visit of a call, or the call on its own when nobody has been scheduled for it yet. So a call worked by three engineers is three rows, each with its own engineer, action status and due date, and a call with no engineer is a single row showing Schedule engineer in the Engineer column.

This is deliberate: it lets you see every engineer's piece of the work, rather than only the latest one. It also means the Status column (the call's own status) is the same on each of those rows, while the Action status column can differ from row to row, because it belongs to each engineer's visit.

If you only want each unscheduled call once, choose To schedule under Which calls at the top of the filter rail. If you want only the visits, choose Scheduled.

What do the columns on the Calls list show?​

The Calls list opens with eleven columns: Call, Type, Customer code, Customer, Status, Logged, Engineer, Action status, Due, Started and Ended. The call's comment is not a column: it is shown on a second line under each call, across the whole width of the list, and a call with no comment takes only one line.

  • Call — the call number. It is a link that opens the call, and it is the one column that cannot be hidden or moved.
  • Type and Status — your company's call type and call status, each in its own colour. The Type column sorts alphabetically; the Status column sorts in your company's workflow order, not alphabetically.
  • Customer code and Customer — the customer the call is for. The name is a link to the customer's screen.
  • Logged — when the call came in.
  • Engineer — the engineer scheduled for this visit, with their photo or initials.
  • Action status — where this engineer's visit has got to, such as Travelling, On Site or Finished. It sorts in workflow order.
  • Due, Started and Ended — when the visit is due, and when the engineer started and finished.

More columns can be added from Choose columns… in any column heading's menu, up to twenty at a time: Problem description, Resolution, Reference, PO number, Contact, Contact email, Mobile, Follow up date, Follow up to, Entered by, Invoice to, Invoice to code, Mailing address, Customer group and Customer category, plus any extra columns your company has set up. Problem description and Resolution show the start of each note and cannot be sorted or filtered. Entered by and Follow up to are left empty on a call whose ABM user ABM Service cannot find a name for, and such a user is not offered in those columns' filters either. An ABM user whose name ABM has marked (Removed) still shows on their old calls, but is not offered in the Entered by or Follow up to filter.

What does the count at the foot of the Calls list mean?​

The count at the foot of the Calls list counts rows, and it names what those rows are so you are never misled into reading it as a number of calls. With All chosen under Which calls, it reads, for example, "120 calls & scheduled visits — page 1 of 5", because a row there is either a scheduled visit or a call nobody has been given. With To schedule it says "calls to schedule", because every row is a call. With Scheduled it says "scheduled visits", because every row is one engineer's visit.

So if one call has two engineers scheduled, it adds two to the count under All and Scheduled.

ABM Service has no reports screen, so this count is the way to answer "how many": narrow the Calls list with the filter rail and the date window and read the count at the foot, remembering that under All and Scheduled a call with several engineers is counted once for each.

The page-size buttons at the foot of the Calls list (10, 25, 50 and 100) choose how many rows each page shows, and the arrows beside the count move between pages. Turning a page keeps your filters. Any change to what the list is asking — a new date window, a filter, a search or a new sort — takes you back to page 1 and lets go of the marked row, because the rows on the old page no longer answer the new question.

What is on the toolbar above the Calls list?​

The toolbar above the Calls list says what the list is showing and holds the buttons that act on it, reading from left to right:

  1. Filters — folds the filter rail away and brings it back. Its number counts the entries ticked in the rail's lists, plus one for a picked customer.
  2. The question pill — which calls, which date and which window the list is showing, with the exact dates. Its arrows step the window back or forward one period, and each half opens a small panel to change it.
  3. Filter chips — one chip for each filter that is on, such as Call Status or Customer. Select a chip's name to change that filter, or its × to take it off.
  4. Clear all filters — an × after the last chip that removes every filter at once, including a search. It keeps the date window and the Which calls choice.
  5. Search calls — the search box.
  6. Map — shows or hides the customer map beside the list. Each marker is a customer with calls on the list, not an engineer: the map does not show where your engineers are right now.
  7. Refresh — asks for the same list again, keeping your page and the row you had marked, if that row is still there. Use it when somebody else may have changed a call since you opened the list.
  8. New Call — opens a new call.

Does the Calls list update by itself when a colleague changes a call?​

No. The Calls list shows the calls as they were when it was last loaded, and it does not update by itself when a colleague logs, changes or books a call. Press Refresh on the toolbar above the Calls list to see the latest: it asks for the same list again and keeps your filters, your page and the row you had marked.

The Calls list does fetch the calls again when you change what it is asking (a filter, the date window, a search or the sort), and straight after you schedule an engineer from its Engineer column, so the call you booked shows its engineer at once. Turning to another page, or back again, can show rows the list had already fetched, so paging away and back is not a way to see a colleague's changes: press Refresh for that.

The Scheduler is different: it can refresh itself on a timer. On the Scheduler, open Scheduler settings (the cog button), choose an interval under Auto-refresh (Every minute, Every 5 minutes, Every 10 minutes or Every 30 minutes) and select Apply. Auto-refresh is Off to start with.

Can I export the Calls list to Excel or print it?​

No. ABM Service has no export and no print for its lists in this version: the Calls list, the Customers list and the Scheduler have no button that sends what they show to Excel or to a file, and none that prints it. The toolbar above the Calls list holds only the search box, Map, Refresh and New Call, and a column heading's menu offers sorting, grouping, Hide column and Choose columns….

In a web browser, your browser's own print command prints the Calls list as it appears on screen; ABM Service has no layout made for paper.

To share what a list shows, narrow it with the filters and the date window first, so the rows on screen are the ones you want to talk about. Your own saved layout on the Calls list keeps those filters and columns for next time, but a layout cannot be shared with a colleague.

Can I select several calls on the Calls list and close, change or delete them together?​

No. The Calls list marks one row at a time and has no tick boxes, so there is no bulk close, bulk status change or bulk reschedule, and nothing on the Calls list deletes a call. Apart from booking an engineer with Schedule engineer in the Engineer column, one call at a time, each call is changed on its own call screen.

To work through many calls quickly:

  1. Narrow the Calls list to exactly the calls you need, with the filter rail, a customer and the date window.
  2. Open each call from its call number, change it, and select Save on the call screen.
  3. Press Back to return to the Calls list as you left it, with the call you opened marked, and open the next one.

For a call that should not be there, such as one logged twice, open it and set its status to your company's cancelled status, such as Cancelled, then save. The Calls list's default layout ticks only the Open and Active call statuses, so a cancelled call drops out of that view but is kept.

What does the Calls list show when I first open it?​

The very first time you open the Calls list, and whenever you choose Default Layout from the Layouts control at the top of the filter rail, it shows This week by the date each call was Logged, Monday to Sunday, with All chosen under Which calls and the Open and Active call statuses ticked. It is sorted by Logged, newest first, 25 rows to a page, with the eleven standard columns, and the map is closed.

After that, the Calls list normally opens the way you last left it, because the Layouts control starts on Last Used Layout. That includes the number of rows per page and the sort, so if you choose 100 at the foot of the list once, the list opens with 100 rows a page from then on. If you save a layout of your own and star it, the list opens on that layout instead. A search is never saved in a layout, so the list always opens without one.

When you come back to the Calls list with the browser's or the desktop app's Back button — after opening a call or a customer — the list returns exactly as you left it: the same filters, search, page and marked row.

What does it mean when the Calls list says "No calls match"?​

"No calls match" means nothing in the current date window passes every filter that is on. Check the filter chips on the toolbar and the date on the question pill: the list opens with only Open and Active calls ticked under Call Status, so a closed or cancelled call will not appear until you tick its status or clear that filter. A window on Due also leaves out every call nobody has been scheduled for, because those calls have no due date.

After a search that finds nothing, the message names your search and offers Search the last 12 months when the window is shorter than a year.

If you see "The calls could not be loaded" followed by a reason, the list could not be fetched. Press Refresh to try again; if it keeps happening, tell your system administrator what the message says.