What Do the Words in ABM Service Mean?
This glossary explains the words you meet on the screens of ABM Service and in these help pages, one word at a time, with the older or everyday words people use for the same thing. Where a word names a button or a heading, it is written as the screen writes it.
What does 'ABM' mean?
ABM is Advanced Business Manager, the program your company keeps its service, customer and accounts records in. ABM Service works on the same data as ABM, so a call or customer changed in one is changed in the other. Your ABM Service sign-in uses your ABM name and password, and ABM's own user list decides who can sign in and to which company.
What does 'ABM Service' mean?
ABM Service is the office application these pages describe, with the Home, Customers, Calls and Scheduler screens. You can use it in a web browser or as the ABM Service desktop app, and the screens are the same in both. A copy whose name reads ABM Service Development is a test installation, not your company's live one.
What does 'desktop app' mean?
The ABM Service desktop app is ABM Service as a Windows program, opened as ABM Service Desktop from the Start menu or from ABM Service buttons on the ABM toolbar. It opens screens in windows of its own, shows a tray icon with your company's initials beside the clock, and keeps itself up to date. It never asks for an authenticator code.
What does 'ABM user' mean?
An ABM user is somebody who signs in to ABM Service or ABM in the office, chosen from ABM's own user list on the sign-in page. ABM users appear in lists such as Account manager, Follow up and Entered by. An ABM user is not an engineer: work given to an ABM user in the office is not shown on the Scheduler or counted on Home.
What does 'system administrator' mean?
The system administrator is the ABM user who looks after ABM Service for your company, and the only person who sees Administration in the menu. They decide, for the whole company, whether authenticator apps are off, optional or required, and they can reset a person's authenticator when a phone is lost. Ask them when something is set for everybody rather than for you.
What does 'engineer' mean?
An engineer is a field engineer or technician from your company's list of engineers, the people who go on site. Each active engineer has a row on the Scheduler and can be scheduled for a call; an engineer who has left is marked "no longer active" in the history but is not offered for new work. Your company's engineer list can include subcontractors and other names it keeps there.
What does 'customer' mean?
A customer is an account your company works for, with a code, a name, addresses, contacts and billing settings, kept on the customer screen. People also say account, client or site. Every customer has a status, normally Active, Inactive or Prospect; a status your company added in ABM itself is shown as its own letter.
What does 'Prospect' mean?
Prospect is the status of an account nobody has traded with yet, "The accounts that are not customers yet." A new customer starts as a Prospect unless you change its Status before saving, which is why it is not in the Customers list's usual Active view. Choose Prospect or All under Which accounts to see it. A prospect is not offered in the Customer box of a new call; log a call for one with Log a call on its own screen, or change its Status to Active first.
What does 'customer code' mean?
The customer code, shown as Code, is the customer's account code in your company's accounts, up to 16 characters, and no two customers can share one. When you create a customer, ABM Service proposes a code from the start of the title and the next free number, which you can change until the first save.
What does 'account manager' mean?
The Account manager is the ABM user responsible for a customer account. It is shown in the customer screen's header and on the Customers list, which can be filtered by it. A new customer's account manager starts as the person who creates it.
What does 'call' mean?
A call is one service request from a customer, logged in ABM with its own call number. People also call it a job, a ticket or a service request. A call has a customer and contact, a type and a status, a one-line Comment, the Details and Resolution documents, and the engineers' visits scheduled for it.
What does 'job' mean in ABM Service?
Many people say job for a call, and in ABM Service the screens call it a call. The word job does appear on the call screen in a narrower sense: some call types raise a job, and a call of such a type needs a Job group ("This type raises a job — pick its job group."), while Job status on Analysis is the status of the call's job.
What does 'call number' mean?
The call number is the number ABM gives a call when it is first saved; a new call reads "Not saved · number assigned on save" until then. It is the link that opens the call on the Calls list, and typing at least three characters of it into Search calls offers the matching calls from any date.
What does 'Comment' mean on a call?
The Comment is the one-line summary of a call, under the call number at the top of the call screen, and the line the Calls list shows for the call. It is required and holds up to 300 characters. When an engineer is booked, the visit's own description is taken from it.
What does 'call type' mean?
The call type, shown as Type, says what kind of call it is, from your company's own list, each type with its own colour. A type can carry defaults, so changing a call's Type replaces its Charge, Job group, Follow up person and Cost centre with that type's defaults.
What does 'call status' mean?
The call status, shown as Status, says where the whole call stands, from your company's own list of call statuses. ABM has seven built-in statuses, Web, Open, Active, Closed, Matched, Cancelled and Email, and your company can add its own. You change it with Status at the top of the call screen, and every saved change of status is recorded as an Automatic Action.
What does 'action' mean?
An action is anything logged against a call: an engineer's scheduled visit, a phone call, a note, an e-mail, a quote, or an Automatic Action that records a change. The Actions section of the call screen lists them all, newest first, with who logged each one and its status. It is read-only; actions are added by the work itself.
What does 'visit' or 'scheduled visit' mean?
A visit is an engineer booked on a call: one engineer, due at a set time, for a set length. On the Scheduler each visit is drawn as an appointment on the engineer's row, and on the call screen the visits are listed on the Scheduled visits card. A call can have several visits, by one engineer or by several, which is why a call can appear on more than one row of the Calls list.
What does 'action status' mean?
The action status is how far one engineer's visit has got, such as Open, Active, Travelling, On Site, Finished or Cancelled, from a fixed list ABM uses. It belongs to the visit, not the call, so a call can be Open while one visit is Travelling and another is Finished. A visit at Finished, Cancelled, Matched, Closed or Send Error cannot be moved or rescheduled.
What does 'schedule' mean?
To schedule an engineer is to give a call to an engineer by booking a visit, with Schedule engineer on the call screen or the Calls list, or by booking a waiting call on the Scheduler. It is the word ABM Service uses everywhere for what people also call assigning, allocating, dispatching or booking an engineer. Booking a visit on a call at Web, Open, Closed or Cancelled moves the call to Active.
What does 'assign' mean in ABM Service?
In everyday speech, assigning a call to an engineer is what ABM Service calls scheduling: see Schedule engineer, To schedule and Scheduled visits. The word itself appears only in a few places, such as the Assigned to column of a call's Actions, which names the engineer or person an action is for.
What does 'To schedule' mean?
To schedule means calls nobody has been given an engineer yet: "Calls nobody has been given yet. They have no engineer and no due date." It is one of the choices under Which calls on the Calls list, and the name of the column of waiting calls you can open beside the Scheduler board.
What does 'Which calls' mean?
Which calls, at the top of the Calls list's filter rail, chooses what the list shows: All ("Every call in the window, scheduled or not."), To schedule (calls nobody has been given yet), or Scheduled ("Calls an engineer is scheduled for. One row per scheduled visit."). The count at the foot of the list names its rows to match.
What does 'Logged' mean?
Logged is when a call came in, the date and time it was first saved. On the Calls list's By Date window, Logged filters calls by that date, and it is what the list's Default Layout uses; Home's Calls by status panel also counts calls by the date they were logged.
What does 'Due' mean?
Due is when an engineer's visit is due to start. On the Calls list, a date window on Due filters by the visits' due dates, which leaves out calls nobody has been scheduled for, since they have no due date. The Scheduler places every visit by its due date and its duration, which is why its date button reads Due.
What does 'Duration' mean?
Duration is the length of a visit, in hours and minutes, set under When in the Schedule engineer dialog beside Due and End. What ABM stores is the due date and time and the duration; the end is worked out from them. A visit must have a length, must be shorter than a day, and must start and end on the same day.
What does 'clash' mean?
A clash is a proposed or booked visit that overlaps another visit of the same engineer. ABM Service shows a clash but never blocks it, because a double booking is sometimes what you mean: the Schedule engineer dialog says Clashes with and what it overlaps, and on the Scheduler an exclamation mark marks the overlapping appointments. Visits that only touch, one ending as the next starts, do not clash.
What does 'Been here before' mean?
Been here before is the group of engineers who have been on site for this customer in the last 12 months, listed first, most visits first, when you schedule an engineer. A visit here means a day on site: two jobs on the same day count once, and cancelled visits are not counted. The same history is on the customer's Engineers section and its Engineers who have been here card.
What does 'Automatic Action' mean?
An Automatic Action is an action ABM Service writes on a call by itself when you save a change to the call's status, type, job group, priority, job status or work type. Its notes name who made the change and what each value changed from and to. It is the same record ABM has always written, so a call's history reads the same whichever program changed it.
What do 'Details' and 'Resolution' mean on a call?
Details and Resolution are the call's two formatted documents, side by side on the call screen. Details describes the problem, what the engineer reads first, and is where you paste a customer's e-mail; Resolution is the account of the work done, which goes on the job card. The Note button on either document's toolbar adds a dated note stamp with your name.
What does 'Job group' mean?
Job group is the group a call's job is filed under, from your company's own list, on the Call card of the call screen. When the call type raises a job, Job group is required. Changing the call's Type fills it in with that type's default.
What does 'Charge' mean on a call?
Charge says how the work on a call is to be charged: 1. Non Applicable, 2. Non Chargeable or 3. Chargeable, the same three choices in every company. It can be left empty, and the call type fills in its own default.
What does 'Analysis' mean on a call?
Analysis is the section of the call screen with four fields that classify a call for reporting: Priority, Job status, Work type and Cost centre, each from your company's own list. A field is left off when your company has set up no values for it.
What does 'Follow up' mean on a call?
Follow up names the ABM user who should follow the call up, and Follow-up date says when. Both are on the call screen's Call card; clearing Follow up clears the date with it.
What does 'Scheduled visits' mean?
Scheduled visits is the card on the call screen's Details form that lists every engineer's visit booked on the call, in the order they are due, with Add engineer to book another. On a new call its rows read Pending · on save, because the visits are created only when you select Save call.
What does 'Update the scheduled visits' mean?
Update the scheduled visits is the switch that appears on the Scheduled visits card when you change a saved call's Comment or Details. It reads Update the followed by the number of visits, for example "Update the 2 scheduled visits", and it is on unless you turn it off. While it is on, saving gives every engineer's visit the call's new comment and details as plain text. It is the ABM desktop application's Update Actions tick box.
What does the padlock on a visit mean?
A padlock on a visit means its action status is Closed, Matched, Cancelled, Send Error or Finished, so the visit can no longer be moved or given to somebody else, on the call screen or the Scheduler. To send someone back to the job, book another engineer.
What does 'Scheduler' mean?
The Scheduler is ABM Service's planning board: one row per active engineer, with their visits drawn across the days and hours you are looking at. People also call it the planner, the dispatch board or the engineers' diary. Moves made on it are saved as soon as you let go.
What does 'appointment card' mean on the Scheduler?
The appointment card is the small card that opens beside an appointment when you click it on the Scheduler. It shows the Customer, Engineer, Due, Status, any Clashes and the Comment, with Open call and Change engineer.
What does 'Cell duration' mean?
Cell duration, in Scheduler settings, is how much time each cell of the Scheduler board stands for: 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h or 5 h. It works as a zoom, and it also sets how finely a dragged appointment is placed.
What does 'Working day' mean?
Working day, in Scheduler settings, is the hours of each day the Scheduler shows, 08:00 to 18:00 unless you change it. It changes only what the board shows, not when anybody works: a visit wholly outside it is not drawn in the day and week views.
What does 'Colour by' mean?
Colour by, in Scheduler settings, chooses which list the Scheduler's appointments take their colours from: Call type, Call status, Action status or Engineer. The colours themselves are the ones set against each item in the filter rail.
What does 'Quick call' mean?
A Quick call is the small card that opens on the Scheduler when you mark out free time on an engineer's row. It asks only for Customer, Contact name, Type, Comment and Details, plus Job group when the type raises a job, and Create & schedule logs the call and books the engineer into that slot in one step.
What does 'call in hand' mean?
The call in hand is the waiting call you have picked up from the To schedule column to book on the Scheduler. While it is in hand, the Scheduling bar over the board names it and the board lights the free time long enough for the job, the lit gaps. Nothing is written until you select the tick beside the placed job.
What does 'Put after' mean?
Put after is the button on each row of the Nearby panel, on the Scheduler's map, that places the call in hand straight after an appointment already booked near the call's customer. It only places the job; you still select the tick to book it.
What does 'customer map' mean?
The customer map is the map you open beside the Calls list or the Scheduler with the map button, Show the customers on a map. It shows one marker for each customer behind the calls or appointments on screen, with a Key that explains the markers.
What does 'location' or 'pin' mean for a customer?
A customer's location, or pin, is the point on the map where its engineers are sent, set with Set location or Use this location. A customer with no location cannot be drawn on the customer map, and an active customer with no location is listed on the Customers without a location page until somebody places it.
What does 'Eircode' mean?
An Eircode is an Irish postcode. The Eircode box appears on a customer's address when your company is set up in Ireland or the customer already has one, and ABM Service looks the Eircode up first when it estimates where a customer is.
What does 'filter rail' mean?
The filter rail is the panel down the left of the Calls list, the Customers list and the Scheduler, holding the screen's own choices and its tick lists, such as Call Type, Call Status and Engineer. People also call it the sidebar. The Filters button folds it away and brings it back.
What does 'filter chip' mean?
A filter chip is one of the small labels on the filter line at the top of a list or the Scheduler, each naming one filter in force. Select a chip's name to change that filter, its cross to remove it, or Clear all filters to remove them all.
What does 'column filter' mean?
A column filter is the filter behind the small funnel in a column heading on the Calls list or the Customers list. Depending on the column it offers a tick list, Starts with or Contains, At least and At most, or a date period. A list can have up to 10 column filters at once.
What does 'date window' mean?
The date window is the range of dates the Calls list covers, set in the By Date section of the filter rail or on the question pill on the toolbar, on either Logged or Due. The list always has one, up to 366 days wide.
What does 'layout' mean?
A layout is a saved arrangement of a screen: its filters, columns, sort and grouping on a list, or the fields of the call screen's Details form or the customer Overview. You save and pick layouts from the Layouts control, or the arrow beside Details or Overview. Every layout is yours alone; people also say saved view.
What does 'Last Used Layout' mean?
Last Used Layout is where you left a screen last time, kept for you as you work, so a screen comes back the way you left it even if you never saved anything. Default Layout is the other built-in choice, the screen as it comes out of the box. The star beside a layout decides which one a screen opens on.
What does 'Customize this layout' mean?
Customize this layout… starts the form designer for the call screen's Details form or the customer Overview, from the arrow beside Details or Overview in the sections rail. While customizing you move, group, rename, hide and add fields, then press Done.
What does 'custom field' mean?
A custom field is one of your company's own extra fields on calls or customers, set up in ABM beyond the ones every company has. None is shown until you add it to your layout from Custom fields in the Hidden items list, up to 20 on a form, and it is saved with the call or customer.
What does 'colour' mean for items in the filter rail?
Every item in the filter rail, such as a call type, call status, action status or engineer, has one colour that follows it across ABM Service. Change it with the small square beside the item, choosing one of sixteen colours. Your colours are yours alone: "Only you see your colours".
What does 'sections rail' mean?
The sections rail is the column down the left of the call screen and the customer screen that lists the screen's sections, such as Details and Actions on a call, or Overview and Credit & terms on a customer. It folds away to give the page more room.
What does 'unsaved' mean on the reminders in the corner?
A reminder marked unsaved in the bottom-left corner of every screen names a call, customer, contact or Quick call you left without saving. Select it to go back to your typing; select its cross twice to throw the changes away. A reminder marked saved means a save finished while you were elsewhere.
What does 'counting rules' mean?
The counting rules are the Call types, Open, Active and Closed dropdowns on Home, which decide which calls Home counts and which of your company's call statuses count as open, active or closed. They are yours alone and are the same rules ABM's own Calls & Actions Dashboard uses for you.
What does 'dashboard' mean?
People often say dashboard for Home, the screen ABM Service opens on, which is ABM's Calls & Actions Dashboard rebuilt for ABM Service. The error pages also call it the dashboard, in Go to the dashboard.
What does 'uncategorised' mean?
Uncategorised calls, or In no bucket on a customer's Calls card, are calls whose status is not in any of your counting rules. They are still counted in the total and drawn in grey, but on none of the tiles; tick their status under Open, Active or Closed on Home to count them there.
What does 'authenticator' mean?
An authenticator is an app on your phone, such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator, that shows a six-digit code which changes every thirty seconds. When your company uses them, ABM Service asks for that code after your password when you sign in in a browser. This is also called two-factor authentication.
What does 'tray icon' mean?
The tray icon is the small square with your company's initials beside the clock while the ABM Service desktop app is running. Its right-click menu opens new windows, installs a waiting update and, with Exit, closes that copy of ABM Service. An orange dot on it means an update is ready.
What does 'hold' mean on a customer?
A hold is one of six switches on a customer's Defaults & holds section, such as Stop log calls or In arrears. A hold that is on shows as a chip beside the customer's name, and some show as On hold on the map; in this version they are warnings and do not stop a call being logged or changed.
What does 'Invoice to' mean?
Invoice to decides where a customer's invoices and statements go: to the customer itself, or to another customer such as a head office. When a customer is billed to another account, its Credit control balances are that account's, and the header says billed to.
What does 'service docket' mean?
The service docket is the document for an engineer's visit on a customer's call that ABM can print or e-mail once that visit is marked Finished, not when the call itself is closed; people also call it a job sheet. The customer's Docket & e-mail section decides whether it is printed, e-mailed, or both, and which of the customer's contacts it is e-mailed to.
What does 'Customer portal' mean?
The Customer portal is the side of ABM Service where your company's customers sign in themselves, to see their calls and log new ones. Who may use it is set by the system administrator.