Using the ABM Service Tray Icon
While the ABM Service desktop app is running, it shows a small square icon in the Windows notification area beside the clock. The icon carries your company's initials on a coloured background, and its right-click menu opens new windows, installs a waiting update and closes ABM Service completely. If you cannot see it, open the hidden icons beside the clock.
What is the ABM Service icon beside the clock?
The square icon with two letters in the Windows notification area, beside the clock, is the ABM Service desktop app for one company and one signed-in ABM user. The letters are the initials of the company's name, and the colour is worked out from the name, so the same company always gets the same colour, the same colour its mark has in the desktop sign-in window.
Point at the icon to see the company's name followed by ABM. While an update is downloading, the same tooltip shows the new version and how far the download has got, as a percentage.
The icon stays there after you close your last ABM Service window, because ABM Service keeps running in the background so the next window opens almost at once. It goes away when you choose Exit from its menu, and briefly while an update restarts ABM Service. With two companies open, an update brings back only one company's icon; the other comes back the next time you open that company from ABM or the Start menu.
Double-click the icon to open a new window on the Home screen.
The tray icon never tells you about calls: ABM Service shows no pop-up or notification when a call is logged or changed, including a call a customer logs on the Customer portal. Its orange dot is only about updates, and its tooltip only names the company or shows an update downloading. To see new calls, select Refresh on the Calls list, or set Auto-refresh in the Scheduler's settings.
What is on the ABM Service tray icon's menu?
Right-click the ABM Service icon beside the clock to open its menu.
- The company's name, in grey at the top — which company this icon belongs to. It does nothing when clicked.
- Open ABM Service — opens a new window on the Home screen.
- Open scheduler — opens a new window on the Scheduler.
- New call — opens a new window on a New call screen, ready to log a call.
- Install update followed by a version number — only there when a newer version has downloaded and is ready. It closes your ABM Service windows, installs the new version and opens the same windows again. Windows of any other company, or of another ABM name, you have open close too, and those do not reopen.
- Exit — closes every ABM Service window belonging to this icon and stops that copy of ABM Service.
Each of the first three opens a fresh window every time, even if you already have a Home or Scheduler window open.
Why does the ABM Service tray icon have an orange dot?
An orange dot in the top-right corner of the ABM Service tray icon means a newer version of ABM Service has downloaded and is ready to install. At the same moment, Install update followed by the version number appears on the icon's right-click menu.
You do not have to do anything. The update installs itself the next time every ABM Service window on the computer is closed. If you want it now, choose Install update from the tray icon's menu, or Close my windows in the update window in the bottom-right corner of the screen: your windows close, the new version is installed, and the same windows open again.
Warning: Save your work before you install an update: windows are closed without asking about unsaved changes.
Why are there two ABM Service icons beside the clock?
Each company you open in the ABM Service desktop app runs on its own, with its own tray icon, and so does each ABM user: the same company opened under two different ABM names is two separate copies with two icons. Two icons with different initials mean two companies are open, for example because you opened a second company from the Start menu, or pressed an ABM Service button on the toolbar of ABM (Advanced Business Manager) while working in another company there.
Point at each icon to see which company it belongs to. The windows behind each icon are separate: Exit on one icon closes only that icon's windows.
If both icons show the same initials, two companies' names start with the same letters, one of them is a test copy of ABM Service (the tooltip of a test copy ends with dev), or the same company is open under two ABM names, for example after somebody signed in as another person from the Start menu. The tooltip names only the company, not the person, so two icons for the same company look identical.
How do I close ABM Service completely?
Right-click the ABM Service icon beside the clock and choose Exit. Every ABM Service window belonging to that icon closes, the icon disappears, and that copy of ABM Service stops running. Repeat on each ABM Service icon beside the clock, including a second icon for the same company, which belongs to another ABM name signed in on this computer.
Closing windows with their Close button, or with Exit on a window's File menu, closes only those windows: ABM Service keeps running with its tray icon.
If a newer version is waiting when you choose Exit, it is installed as ABM Service closes, as long as nothing else of ABM Service is still open on the computer.
Warning: Exit does not ask about unsaved changes in the windows it closes. Save your work first.
To change who is signed in, or to open a different company, you do not need to exit: open ABM Service Desktop from the Start menu and sign in again. Signing in as another person does not close the first person's copy: it keeps running with its own icon until you choose Exit on it.