How to Schedule an Engineer for a Call
Scheduling an engineer books a visit: a named engineer, due at a set time, for a set length. On the call screen you do it with Schedule engineer at the top of the screen, beside Status; the same dialog also opens from the Scheduled visits card and from the Engineer column of the Calls list.
How do I schedule an engineer for a call?
Open the call and select Schedule engineer at the top of the call screen, beside Status. A dialog headed Engineer for this call opens: pick the engineer, check the time under When, and press Done. On a saved call the visit is booked the moment you press Done.
- Open the call from the Calls list.
- Select Schedule engineer at the top of the call screen.
- Choose the engineer in the Engineer box. The list shows every active engineer with their next three days, so you can click a free time on an engineer's line and pick the engineer, the day and the time in one go.
- Check Due, End and Duration under When, or drag the proposed slot on the engineer's day that appears under the boxes.
- Type anything the engineer should read in Notes, if you want to.
- Press Done at the foot of the dialog.
The line beside the dialog's heading tells you when your choice takes effect: booked as soon as you press Done on a saved call, created with the call on a new one. A new dialog always starts at the next whole hour, one hour long. Each visit is for one date and time: ABM Service has no repeating or recurring visits, so for regular work, such as a monthly service, log a new call each time and schedule the engineer on it.
Once an engineer is booked, the Schedule engineer button becomes a filled pill showing the engineer's picture or initials, their name, the day and the hours, so you can see who has the call from anywhere on the screen. The visit also appears in the Scheduled visits card.
How do I schedule an engineer while logging a new call?
On the New call screen, select Schedule engineer at the top of the screen and fill in the dialog the same way as on a saved call. Nothing is written yet: the engineer is held with the call and created with it when you press Save call.
- Pick the customer first, in the Customer box of the new call.
- Select Schedule engineer at the top of the new call screen.
- Choose the engineer and the time, and press Done. The dialog closes and the engineer stays on the call.
- Press Save call when the rest of the call is ready. The call and its visits are saved together.
On a new call the dialog holds nothing back: an engineer is added to the call the moment the dialog opens, and every change you make shows on the header pill and in the Scheduled visits card as you make it, marked Pending · on save. Done only closes the dialog. So if you open Schedule engineer on a new call and close the dialog without choosing anyone, a blank engineer stays on the call, shown as Engineer…, and Save call stops with Pick the engineer to schedule. until you choose one or take the blank one off.
To take a pending engineer off again, open them from the header pill or the Scheduled visits card and press Don't schedule at the foot of the dialog. If you leave the new call without saving, the engineer is not booked.
If the time you chose breaks a rule, for example it runs past midnight, Save call stops and says why, and nothing is saved until you fix it. If you started the call from the Scheduler by marking out a slot on an engineer's row, that engineer and time are already on the new call.
What happens when I press Done on the Schedule engineer dialog?
On a saved call, Done in the Schedule engineer dialog books the visit straight away, as its own step; you do not need to press Save afterwards. While it works the button reads Booking… and the dialog stays open.
If you have unsaved changes on the call, ABM Service saves the call first and then books the visit, which is the same order the ABM desktop application uses. If that save is refused, nothing is booked and the dialog says The call itself has to save first — the message on the screen says what stopped it. Fix the problem shown in the save bar and press Done again.
When the booking lands, the dialog closes, the header pill shows the engineer and the time, and the Scheduled visits card lists the new visit. A new visit starts at the Active action status. The engineer's own notes are what you typed in Notes, or the call's comment when you left Notes empty, which is why the box says Defaults to the comment.
A booking on a saved call has no Undo, and the visit cannot be taken off the call again in ABM Service. If you booked the wrong engineer or time, open the visit from the engineer pill and change it with Change this visit.
If the booking is refused, the reason appears as a warning inside the dialog, under the Notes box, and everything you typed is still there to correct.
To close the dialog without booking, press the Escape key (Esc), click anywhere outside it, or press the engineer pill or Schedule engineer again. If the Engineer list is open, the first press of Esc closes the list and the second closes the dialog. While a booking is in flight the dialog cannot be closed; it closes by itself once the booking has been answered. On a new call, Done only closes the dialog, because the engineer is already on the call.
Why does Schedule engineer say "Pick the customer first"?
Schedule engineer refuses to open on a new call that has no customer yet, and says Pick the customer first. The engineer list leads with the engineers who have already been to the customer's site, so with no customer on the call there is nothing to lead with.
Pick the customer in the Customer box of the new call, and the message goes away by itself; press Schedule engineer again to open the dialog. The message also goes away on your next click anywhere or when you press the Escape key (Esc).
This only stops you starting a new engineer. An engineer who is already on the call, for example one who came with the call from the Scheduler, stays on it, and their pill opens as usual. A saved call always has its customer, so you will not see the message there.
Why does the dialog say booking a visit will put the call back to Active?
Booking a visit can reopen a call, and the dialog warns you before you press Done. When the call is at one of the built-in statuses Web, Open, Closed or Cancelled, the dialog shows a line under its heading such as This call is Closed. Booking a visit will put it back to Active.
The database does this, not the screen: adding an engineer's visit to a call at one of those statuses moves the call to Active and records the change in the call's history, exactly as it does for the ABM desktop application. A call that is already Active, or at any status your company has added, is left as it is, and the dialog shows no notice.
After the booking, the call screen's status changes in front of you and a line appears at the foot of the screen saying Call reopened followed by the old status and Active; press Dismiss to put it away. Changing an existing visit never moves the call's status, so the Change this visit dialog never shows the notice.
What do the messages in the Schedule engineer dialog mean?
On a saved call, the Schedule engineer dialog checks the visit when you press Done and says inside the dialog what is wrong, leaving what you typed in place. On a new call the same sentences appear when you press Save call, because that is when the engineers are written. Each message names the one thing to fix.
- Pick the engineer to schedule. — nobody is chosen in the Engineer box.
- Say when the engineer is due. — Due is empty or is not a date and time.
- The appointment needs a duration. — Duration is zero or empty. An older visit stored with no length opens with Duration at 00:00, and Done refuses until you give it one.
- An appointment is shorter than a day. — the duration is 24 hours or more. The Duration box does not take such a length, so you will rarely see this one.
- An appointment starts and ends on the same day. — the visit would run past midnight. Book it as two visits, one on each day.
- The engineer is not on the roster; only an active engineer can be scheduled. — the engineer is no longer an active engineer.
- The engineers could not be loaded: followed by the reason — the list of engineers did not arrive. Closing and reopening the dialog on the same call screen does not ask again; reload ABM Service and open the call again.
- Someone has already given this call to an engineer. — only from the Calls list, when another person booked the call a moment before you.
A clash with another visit is not one of these: it is shown, never blocked, because you may mean to double-book.