How to Open ABM Service from the ABM Toolbar
Your company can put ABM Service buttons on the toolbar of ABM (Advanced Business Manager), so a click in ABM opens the matching ABM Service screen in the desktop app. You are not asked to sign in, because ABM passes on who you are and which company you are working in. Which buttons you have, and where they sit, depends on how your company set up ABM.
How do I open ABM Service from ABM?
Press the ABM Service button on the ABM toolbar for the screen you want. The ABM Service desktop app opens that screen in a window of its own, signed in as the same ABM user and in the same company you are using in ABM.
- Sign in to ABM as usual and open your company.
- Press the ABM Service button for the screen you need, for example the Scheduler or a call.
- Wait a moment the first time: a panel saying Starting ABM Service… appears, then the same line with your company's name, and then your window.
After the first button of the day, ABM Service keeps running quietly in the background with its tray icon beside the clock, so the next button opens its window almost at once. There is no separate sign-in, and there is no Sign out: to stop it, use Exit on the tray icon.
What can the ABM toolbar buttons open?
An ABM Service toolbar button in ABM opens one of six screens of the ABM Service desktop app. Each button is a small program named after what it opens.
- Home — the Home screen, with your calls and actions at a glance.
- Calls — the Calls list.
- A call — the call screen for the call ABM hands to the button. If ABM passes no call, the same button opens a New call screen instead.
- Customers — the Customers list.
- A customer — the customer screen for the customer ABM hands to the button. If ABM passes no customer, the same button opens a New customer screen instead.
- Scheduler — the Scheduler.
Lists, the Scheduler, Home and new records open a fresh window every time you press the button. A particular call or customer opens only once: pressing its button again brings the window that already shows it to the front, so two windows never edit the same record.
Each window wears a picture of its screen, on its taskbar button and at the left of its title bar. It is the same picture the matching toolbar program carries, so the Scheduler's window looks like the Scheduler's button.
What happens the first time I press an ABM Service button on a computer?
The first time you press an ABM Service button in ABM on a computer, ABM Service has to be set up for your Windows user. A window titled Setting up ABM Service appears, says This happens once on this computer., and shows how many megabytes it has downloaded.
Leave it to finish: pressing the button again does not start a second download. When it is done, the screen you asked for opens by itself, so the press is not lost. Opening ABM Service Desktop from the Start menu for the first time shows the same window, and then the sign-in window.
If the set-up fails, the window says ABM Service could not be set up on this computer., gives the reason, and has a Close button. Check the internet connection and press the button again; if it fails again, tell your IT support what the window said.
If you see ABM Service isn't installed on this computer. Please ask your administrator to install it., the part of ABM Service that your IT support installs for the whole computer is missing. Ask them to install it; there is nothing to do in ABM.
Why did an ABM button take a few seconds to open a window?
When you press an ABM Service button in ABM and no ABM Service window is open, the desktop app first checks whether a newer version is waiting. If there is none, the window opens after a fraction of a second.
If a newer version is found, it downloads and installs first, and then opens the screen you asked for. While that happens you may see a small window in the bottom-right corner of the screen saying Downloading ABM Service with the new version number and a progress bar. The desktop app waits up to about half a minute for a download; if it takes longer, your window opens anyway and the update is offered later.
When a window is already open, nothing waits: the screen you asked for opens straight away, and any new version is offered beside it.
Why do I get "This program is started by Advanced Business Manager, not directly"?
This message appears when somebody opens one of the ABM Service toolbar programs directly, for example by double-clicking it in a folder, instead of pressing its button in ABM. Those programs need ABM to tell them the user and the company, so on their own they refuse to start.
To open ABM Service without ABM, use ABM Service Desktop in the Windows Start menu instead: it asks who you are and which company to open.
If a toolbar button in ABM shows a message about the user number, the company id or an unknown surface, the button itself is set up wrongly. Tell whoever looks after ABM which button you pressed.