How to See Every Call for a Customer
The Calls section of the customer screen lists every call ever logged for the customer, with no date limit, so you can see their whole service history in one place. Open the customer from Customers and select Calls under History in the sections rail on the left of the customer screen.
How do I see all the calls for a customer?
Open the customer and select Calls in the sections rail, under History. The number beside Calls in the rail is how many calls the customer has.
- Open Customers from the menu and search for the customer.
- Open the customer to show the customer screen.
- Select Calls in the sections rail, under History.
The section opens with the sentence "Every call ever logged for" and the customer's name, "with no date limit." Unlike the main Calls screen, there is no date window to set: the customer is the only filter, so calls from years ago are there too. The newest calls come first.
You can also get there from the customer's Overview. The Calls panel there counts the customer's calls and lists the five most recently logged; select All calls at the top of the panel to open the Calls section. Select a call number in that panel to open the call directly.
The Calls section is not available on a new customer until it has been saved; hovering over Calls in the rail says "once the customer is saved".
What do the columns in a customer's Calls list show?
The list in the Calls section of the customer screen has the same columns, chips and colours as the main Calls screen, without a Customer column, since every row is this customer's.
- Call — the call number. Select it to open the call.
- Type — the call's type, in your company's call types and their colours.
- Status — the call's status, in that status's colour.
- Logged — the date and time the call was logged.
- Engineer — the engineer scheduled for the visit on that row, with their photo or initials, or Not scheduled when nobody has been given the call yet.
- Due — when the visit on that row is due.
- Problem description — the start of the call's problem description.
The list shows one row per scheduled visit. A call with two engineers scheduled appears on two rows, one for each engineer, a call booked for the same engineer twice also appears twice, and a call nobody has been scheduled for appears once with Not scheduled. That is why the count at the foot of the list says "calls & scheduled visits", for example "40 calls & scheduled visits — page 1 of 2": it counts rows, not calls, and can be higher than the number beside Calls in the rail.
How do I sort, page and open calls in the customer's Calls list?
Select a column heading in the Calls section of the customer screen to sort by it, and select it again to reverse the order; use the page numbers at the foot of the list to move through the pages. The list opens sorted by Logged, newest first, 25 rows to a page.
- Sort: select any heading except Problem description, which cannot be sorted because it is a long text. Right-clicking a heading also offers Sort ascending and Sort descending, and Clear sorting goes back to Logged, newest first.
- Rows per page: choose 10, 25, 50 or 100 at the foot of the list.
- Pages: select a page number, or Previous page and Next page.
- Open a call: select its number in the Call column, double-click the row, or move to the row and press Enter.
When you open a call and then use Back, you return to the customer's Calls section with the same sort and page, and the row you left from is marked and brought into view, even on a customer with a long history.
The list uses the same grid as the main Calls screen, so you can also move and resize its columns by dragging their headings, and hide one by right-clicking its heading and choosing Hide column. It has no column filters and no Choose columns…, and a column you hide there comes back the next time you open the customer afresh.
If the list cannot be loaded, the reason is shown above the list; open another section and then Calls again to try again. A saved customer with no calls at all shows "Nothing to show" in the list.
Can I filter, print or copy the calls in a customer's Calls list?
No. The Calls section of the customer screen lists the customer's calls and lets you sort, page and open them, but it has no search, no filters by status or type, no export or print, and no button that copies an old call into a new one.
- To narrow one customer's calls by status, type, engineer or date, use the main Calls screen instead: pick the customer in the Customer section of its filter rail, and every other filter and the date window then apply to that customer's calls.
- To do the same job again, open the old call from the list to read how it was done, then select Log a call in the customer's Calls section and copy the old call's Comment and Details into the new call before you save it.
- To keep a record on paper or in a spreadsheet, ABM Service has no way to send the list anywhere. In a web browser, the browser's own print command prints the page as it looks on screen.
A call cannot be deleted from the list or moved to another customer. To get rid of a call logged by mistake, open it and set its status to your company's cancelled status.
How do I log a new call for this customer?
Select Log a call at the top of the customer's Calls section, or Log a call in the header of the customer screen. Both open a new call with this customer already filled in.
- Open the customer.
- Select Log a call, either in the Calls section or at the top of the customer screen.
- Fill in the new call. The customer's name and code are already on it; the contact name and phone are left empty for you to fill in.
- Save the call as usual.
Log a call is only there once the customer has been saved; a new customer has to be saved first.
The Calls section reads the list afresh each time it is opened, so when you come back to the customer after saving the new call, the call is at the top of the list whenever it is sorted newest first.