How to Choose the Period the Home Screen Counts
The Home screen counts the calls and engineer visits in one period at a time, and you choose that period with the pills at the top of the screen. Open Home from the menu, then use Today, This week, This month or This year, and the arrows either side of them to step back to an earlier period.
How do I change the period on the Home screen?
To change the period on the Home screen, select one of the four pills in the bar under the greeting: Today, This week, This month or This year. The pill you choose is highlighted and every panel except Today on the board is counted again for that period.
- Open Home from the menu (it is also the screen ABM Service opens on).
- Select Today, This week, This month or This year in the period bar.
- Read the line to the right of the pills to see exactly which dates are being counted.
The Home screen always opens on This week. Weeks run from Monday to Sunday, so This week is Monday up to today. Selecting a pill always takes you to the current period of that length, even if you had stepped back to an earlier one.
You cannot type dates of your own on the Home screen: the four pills and the arrows are the only way to set the period. For one earlier day, select Today and step back with The period before, up to 120 days back; for anything longer, choose the week, month or year that holds the dates you want.
How do I look at last month or last week on the Home screen?
To look at an earlier period on the Home screen, choose the length you want (for example This month) and then select the back arrow, The period before, to the left of the pills. Each press steps back one whole period: from this month to all of last month, then the month before, and so on.
- Select This month (or This week, Today or This year) in the period bar on the Home screen.
- Select The period before, the arrow to the left of the pills, once for each period you want to go back.
- Select The period after, the arrow to the right of the pills, to come forward again.
While you are looking at an earlier period, no pill is highlighted, because none of them describes it. The period after cannot be selected when you are already on the current period: there is nothing after today to count. To jump straight back to the present, select any pill.
You can step back at most 120 periods: 120 days on Today, 120 weeks on This week, 120 months on This month or 120 years on This year. The period before does not grey out at that point, but pressing it again shows "These numbers could not be refreshed, so they are the last ones that loaded." and the Home screen stays on the last period it could count. To look further back than 120 days or weeks, choose a longer period instead, such as This month or This year.
What does the line beside the period pills mean?
The line to the right of the period pills on the Home screen says in words which days are being counted. It reads differently for the current period and for an earlier one:
- For the current period it says it runs to the end of today, for example "from 1 March to the end of today". Every call logged today counts, whether it was logged an hour ago or will be logged this afternoon.
- When the current period is a single day — always for Today, and for This week on a Monday or This month on the first of the month — it says "all of today", followed by the date.
- For an earlier period it shows the first and last day counted, for example "1 February to 28 February", or a single date for an earlier day.
A date's year is only shown when it is not the current year. Hover over the line for the current period and a note explains why it stops at today.
Why does the Home screen stop counting at today?
The Home screen counts what has already happened, so the current period always stops at the end of today rather than running to the end of the week, month or year. This month means the first of the month up to and including today, not the whole month.
This matters because ABM holds work dated well into the future, such as planned maintenance raised months or years ahead. Counting it would turn This year into a forecast of work nobody has done yet rather than a total of what has happened. An earlier period, reached with The period before, is always counted whole, because it has finished.
If you want to see work that is due later, use the Calls list or the Scheduler, which are built for looking ahead.
Which date does the Home screen count each call and visit by?
The Home screen's panels count by two different dates. The Calls by status panel, and the grouping card on Type or Customer, count calls by the date they were logged. The Actions by status panel, and the grouping card on Engineer, count engineer visits by the date and time they are due.
So a call logged last month with a visit due this week is in last month's Calls by status and in this week's Actions by status. That is why the two panels can tell different stories for the same period.
Today on the board ignores the period altogether. It always shows the visits due today, even when you have stepped back to last year, because it is a view of the day in front of you.