How to Find a Customer on the Customers List
The quickest way to reach one customer is the Find a customer box on the toolbar of the Customers list, beside Refresh and New Customer. Type at least two letters of the customer's code, name, address or Eircode, and a panel headed Open a customer lists the matches as you type; select one to open that customer's screen. The box opens a customer and never filters the Customers list: the list behind it stays exactly as it was. The box stays on screen even when the filter rail is folded away.
How do I find and open a customer on the Customers list?
Type the start of the customer's code or Eircode, or part of its name or address, into the Find a customer box on the toolbar of the Customers list, then select the customer in the Open a customer panel that opens under the box. The customer's own screen opens.
- Open Customers from the navigation menu.
- Select the box on the toolbar of the Customers list. It reads Find a customer: code, name, address or Eircode (or postcode instead of Eircode outside Ireland).
- Type at least two letters. The Open a customer panel opens under the box and fills in as you type; with fewer than two letters it says "Type at least two letters of a code, name, address or Eircode."
- Select the customer in the panel, or press Enter to open the highlighted match, which is the first one unless you have moved.
- Read the customer's screen, which has opened in place of the Customers list.
The head of the panel says Searching… while ABM Service looks, then how many it found, for example "3 found", beside the reminder "Click one to open it. The list behind stays as it is."
To go back, use the Back arrow on the customer's screen. The Customers list returns as you left it: the same filters, the same page, the row you had marked still marked, and the Find a customer box empty, ready for the next customer.
On an Irish system the box and the panel can say postcode until your first search has answered, and Eircode after that (a new tab, or reloading the page, starts again with postcode); the search works the same either way. If the search fails, the panel says "The search did not answer. Type again to try again."
What does each customer in the Open a customer panel show?
Each match in the Open a customer panel under the Find a customer box on the Customers list shows enough to tell similar customers apart before you open one. A match shows:
- The customer's name, followed by the word inactive or prospect when the account is not active.
- The mailing address on one line, followed by the Eircode or postcode. A customer with no address shows No address.
- The company phone and the accounts e-mail address, or No phone or e-mail when neither is recorded.
- On the right, the customer's code, a small note saying which field matched (for example matched name, matched code, matched address or matched Eircode) and Open customer →.
The letters you typed are highlighted in the name, the address, the Eircode and the code, so you can see why each customer was found.
The matches are grouped under the heading Active customers. If none match, the panel says No active customer matches followed by what you typed in quotation marks. A second group, Inactive and prospect, appears under it only when you ask for it with Also search inactive accounts at the foot of the panel.
The phone number and e-mail address are shown to help you recognise the customer; the box does not search them.
What does the Find a customer box match, and in what order?
The Find a customer box on the Customers list looks at the customer's code first, then the name, then the mailing address, then the Eircode or postcode, and lists the matches in that order.
- Code matches only when the code starts with what you typed, so type a code from its first character.
- Name matches when the name starts with what you typed, and after those, when the name contains it anywhere.
- Address matches when the mailing address contains what you typed anywhere.
- Eircode or postcode matches only when it starts with what you typed. It is only looked at when what you typed contains a digit, because every Eircode and postcode has one.
An Eircode can be typed with or without its space, and the first three characters alone (the routing key) find the customers in that area.
A customer found in more than one way is listed once, at its best match. The panel shows at most 20 active customers, so if the one you want is not there, type a little more.
The box does not look at phone numbers, e-mail addresses or the names of a customer's contacts. To find a customer by phone number, use the filter button on the Phone column heading of the Customers list, choose Contains and type part of the number; the Accounts e-mail column's filter works the same way for an e-mail address. How to Filter the Customers List has the steps.
How do I find an inactive customer or a prospect?
Type in the Find a customer box on the Customers list as usual, then select Also search inactive accounts at the foot of the Open a customer panel. ABM Service then searches the accounts that are not active and lists them under a second heading, Inactive and prospect, after the active matches.
While it looks, that group says Searching the inactive accounts…. Each account found is tagged inactive or prospect so you cannot mistake it for a live one; an account with a status your company added in ABM itself is found here too, tagged inactive. If none match, the group says No inactive accounts match either. Up to 20 inactive accounts and prospects can be listed.
Also search inactive accounts goes away once you have selected it. If you then change what is in the box, the new text searches active customers only; select Also search inactive accounts again to include the others.
Inactive accounts are searched only when you ask, so the everyday search stays quick and a closed account never appears among the live ones. Opening an inactive customer or a prospect from the panel opens its screen as usual, and does not change the Which accounts choice of the Customers list. To list them on the Customers list itself, choose Inactive, Prospect or All in Which accounts.
Which keys work in the Find a customer box?
The Find a customer box on the Customers list can be used without the mouse. The foot of the Open a customer panel repeats the main keys: "↑ ↓ move · Enter opens · Esc closes".
- Press the Down arrow or Up arrow key to move the highlight through the matches. The first match is highlighted to begin with, and the highlight stops at the first and the last.
- Press Enter to open the highlighted customer. If you press Enter before the matches have arrived, ABM Service waits for them and opens the first; typing again, or pressing Esc, before they arrive cancels that, and if nothing matches, nothing opens.
- Press Escape (Esc) once to close the panel and keep your text, and a second time to empty the box.
- Press Tab to step from the box onto the matches in the panel, one at a time, and then onto Also search inactive accounts; press Enter on a match to open it. Tab does not close the panel: press Esc, or select anywhere outside the box and the panel, to close it.
To bring the panel back after pressing Esc, press the Down arrow or Up arrow key, or type another letter; selecting the box again does not reopen it while the box still has the keyboard. If you had moved away from the box, selecting it again brings the panel back with your text.
Can I filter the Customers list to one customer?
No. The Find a customer box on the toolbar of the Customers list opens one customer and never filters the list, so there is no filter for one picked customer. To narrow the list itself, use the Name or Code column filter, which shows every customer whose name or code starts with, or contains, what you type.
- Select the filter button on the Name column heading of the Customers list.
- Choose Starts with or Contains.
- Type part of the name into the box (it reads Type part of the name…) and select Apply, or press Enter.
The Code filter works the same way, with Type part of the code…. Case is ignored. The filter shows as a chip on the filter line, such as Name followed by what you typed, and a saved layout keeps it. Use Find a customer when you want to open one customer, and the Name or Code filter when you want a family of accounts, for example every account whose name contains the same word.
The Calls list has a box of its own, Find a call, which opens one call in the same way: see How to Find a Call.
Can I open a customer from Find a customer in a new tab?
Yes, with the mouse. In the Open a customer panel under the Find a customer box on the Customers list, point at a match and select the small open-in-new-tab link beside the customer's name (its tooltip reads Open the customer in a new tab in a browser, or Open the customer in a new window in the ABM Service desktop app). The customer's screen opens in the new tab or window, and the Customers list and the panel stay as they were, so you can open several customers one after another.