How to Find a Call
The Find a call box on the Calls list's toolbar finds one call and opens it. Type part of the call number, or a few words written on the call, and a panel drops down under the box with the calls that match; click one, or press Enter, and that call's screen opens. The box never changes the Calls list behind it.
How do I find and open a call on the Calls list?
Type part of the call number, or at least three letters of something written on the call, into the Find a call box at the top of the Calls list, then click the call in the panel that drops down. The call's screen opens straight away.
- Open Calls from the navigation menu.
- Click in the Find a call box on the Calls list's toolbar, just before the Map, Refresh and New Call buttons. Empty, it reads "Find a call: number or any words in it".
- Type part of the call number, or a word or phrase from the call's reference, comment, problem description or resolution.
- Click the call you want in the panel, or press Enter to open the highlighted one.
The panel is headed Open a call and says "Click one to open it. The list behind stays as it is." Beside the heading it says "Searching…" while it looks, then how many calls it found. Until you have typed enough it says "Type a call number, or at least three letters of anything written on a call."
The call opens in the same tab, in place of the Calls list. Press Back to return to the Calls list exactly as you left it: the same filters, page and columns, with the row you had marked before still marked, and the Find a call box empty again. To open a call in a new tab instead, point at it in the panel and select the small open-in-new button beside its call number (a new window in the ABM Service desktop app).
The box is always on the toolbar, even when the filter rail is folded away. The Customers list has a box of its own, Find a customer, that works the same way for customers.
What can I type into the Find a call box?
The Find a call box on the Calls list looks for two things at once: a call number, and words written on a call.
- Part of a call number — at least three characters, including at least one digit, and no more than sixteen. The calls whose numbers contain what you typed are found from any date and with any status, so this is the way to open an old or closed call when you know its number.
- Words written on the call — at least three letters, found anywhere in the call's Reference, its comment, its problem description (shown as Details in the panel) or its Resolution. The whole of each note is read, not only the start the Calls list shows. Words are found among calls logged in the last 12 months, up to and including today.
Words are matched exactly as you type them, as one phrase, spaces included. Typing "boiler leak" finds a note that says "boiler leak", but not one that says "leak at the boiler"; type fewer words to cast a wider net. The box takes up to 200 characters.
The Find a call box does not look at the customer's name, code or address, or at the engineer's name. To see one customer's calls, pick the customer in the Customer section of the Calls list's filter rail; to see one engineer's calls, tick the engineer under Engineer in the rail.
The box looks a moment after you stop typing, so you can type at your own speed. Typing more while it is looking simply starts the search again for the new text.
What do the two groups in the Find a call panel show?
The panel under the Find a call box on the Calls list has up to two groups of calls, and each call appears only once, however many engineer visits it has.
- By call number, marked "any date" — up to five calls whose numbers contain what you typed, from any date and with any status, the highest call numbers first. This group appears only when what you typed could be part of a call number and at least one number matches.
- Mentioning followed by your words, marked "logged in the last 12 months" — up to ten calls whose reference, comment, problem description or resolution contain your words, the most recently logged first. Closed and cancelled calls are included, and the Calls list's own date window, Which calls choice and filters make no difference to it.
A call found by its number is not repeated in the Mentioning group. When more than ten calls mention your words, the foot of the panel says "More than 10 found — add a word to narrow it": type more of the phrase to find the one you want.
When nothing mentions your words, the panel says so, for example "Nothing written on a call in the last 12 months says “boiler”." To look further back, use Search the 12 months before at the foot of the panel.
While the words are being looked for, the group says "Searching the calls’ notes…".
What does each call in the Find a call panel tell me?
Each call in the Find a call panel on the Calls list has three lines, so you can tell similar calls apart before you open one.
- First line — the call number, the customer's name ("No customer" when there is none), and the call's status and call type in your company's colours.
- Second line — for a call found by its words, where the words were found, named Comment, Reference, Details (the problem description) or Resolution, followed by the words around the match, with "…" where the note has been cut. A reference is shown whole. Your words are highlighted. For a call found by its number, this line shows the call's comment, or "No comment".
- Third line — "Logged" and the date the call was logged, then the engineer of the call's next visit, or of its latest visit when none is still to come, with their photo or initials. "+1 more", "+2 more" and so on says how many other visits the call has, and "Due" gives the visit's due date. "Not scheduled" means the call has no engineer on it.
On the right, a call found by its number says "by number", and the highlighted call shows "Open call →".
In the By call number group the letters you typed are highlighted in each call number.
How do I find a call that was logged more than a year ago?
If you know the call number, type part of it into the Find a call box on the Calls list: the By call number group finds calls from any date. If you only know words written on the call, press Search the 12 months before at the foot of the panel to look one year further back.
The button names the dates it will search, for example Search the 12 months before followed by two dates in brackets. Each press goes back another year, and the Mentioning group's note changes from "logged in the last 12 months" to "logged" and the dates it covered. The cursor stays in the Find a call box, so you can press Down and Enter to open what it finds.
As soon as you change the words, the search starts again on the last 12 months, so settle on the words first and then step back through the years. The button appears once the words have been looked for, whether anything was found or not.
An old call can always be found by its number, whatever its date, so if you can get the call number from a customer, an invoice or an engineer's docket, typing part of it is the quickest way to an old call.
Which keys work in the Find a call box?
The Find a call box on the Calls list can be used entirely from the keyboard: the arrow keys move through the calls, Enter opens one and Escape closes the panel. The foot of the panel carries the same reminder.
- The Down and Up arrow keys move the highlight through every call in the panel, from the By call number group into the Mentioning group. With the panel closed, the Down arrow opens it again.
- Enter opens the highlighted call. The first call is highlighted until you move.
- Escape closes the panel and keeps what you typed. Pressing Escape a second time empties the box.
- Tab moves into the panel's list of calls and leaves the panel open; Enter there opens the call you are on. Escape, or clicking anywhere outside the box and the panel, closes it.
You do not have to wait for the panel to fill. Type a whole call number and press Enter at once, and ABM Service waits for the By call number group and opens that call, even if a call that merely mentions the number in its notes was found first. If you type anything more before it opens, the waiting Enter is cancelled; press Enter again when you are ready. If the call-number search did not answer, nothing is opened.
Why can't the Find a call box find the call I want?
Usually because of what was typed into the Find a call box on the Calls list, or because the call was logged more than a year ago. Check these in turn:
- Too little typed. A call number needs at least three characters with a digit among them, and words need at least three letters. Until then the panel says "Type a call number, or at least three letters of anything written on a call."
- The words are written differently on the call. Words are matched as one phrase, exactly as typed. Try a single distinctive word, or part of the customer's reference.
- You typed the customer's name. Names are not searched. Pick the customer in the Customer section of the Calls list's filter rail and look through their calls, or open the customer's own screen from the Customers list.
- The call was logged more than 12 months ago. The panel says, for example, "Nothing written on a call in the last 12 months says “boiler”." Press Search the 12 months before, or type part of the call number, which is found from any date.
- Too many calls match. Only ten are shown, and the panel says "More than 10 found — add a word to narrow it".
- The search did not answer. The panel says "The call-number lookup did not answer. Type again to try again." or "The search did not answer. Type again to try again." Change the text, or type it again, to try again; if it keeps happening, tell your system administrator.
Does the Find a call box filter the Calls list?
No. The Find a call box opens one call and leaves the Calls list exactly as it was: the same rows, the same count at the foot, and the same customers on the map. Typing in it does not add a filter chip, and nothing is cleared when you open a call from it.
To list every call that mentions a word, rather than open one, use the filter on the Comment heading under the column headings of the Calls list, or on the Problem description or Resolution column. That filter narrows the list itself, inside its date window and other filters, and shows as a chip on the toolbar until you remove it.
To narrow the list in other ways, use the filter rail on the left: the date window under By Date, Which calls, the Customer section, and the call type, call status, action status and engineer lists.