How to Update Scheduled Visits When a Call Changes
Each engineer's visit carries its own copy of the call's words: a one-line description and the notes the engineer reads. When you change the call's Comment or its Details document on a saved call, the Scheduled visits card offers to give every visit the new words when you save, and the offer is on unless you turn it off.
What is the update switch on the Scheduled visits card?
The update switch is an offer that appears at the top of the Scheduled visits card on the call screen as soon as you change the call's Comment or type in its Details document, on a saved call that has at least one engineer's visit. It is on by default, and when you press Save each visit is given the call's new comment and details.
The band the switch sits in has three parts:
- A heading saying what changed: Comment changed, Details changed, or Comment and Details changed.
- The switch, labelled Update the followed by the number of visits and scheduled visits, for example "Update the 3 scheduled visits", or "Update the 1 scheduled visit" when there is only one.
- A sentence saying who will get the words, naming up to three engineers in the order their visits are due and counting the rest, followed by will be given this call's comment and details when you save.
While the switch is on, every row in the card carries a small will update flag. A last line reminds you that A scheduled visit shows plain text, so pictures and formatting stay on the call.
This is the ABM desktop application's Update Actions tick box. It helps keep what the engineers read in step with the call, so nobody turns up working from an old description.
What exactly is copied to the engineers' visits when I save?
When you press Save with the update switch on, every engineer's visit on the call has its one-line description replaced by the call's Comment and its notes replaced by the text of the call's Details document. Nothing else about a visit changes: not the engineer, not when it is due, not its status, and not the engineer's resolution.
- Every engineer's visit on the call is updated, finished ones included. There is no choosing visit by visit.
- Only engineers' visits. Phone calls, notes, e-mails, quotes and automatic entries on the call are never touched.
- Plain text only. A visit holds plain text, so the words of Details go across but its pictures, tables and formatting stay on the call.
- Up to 300 characters of the comment. The visit's description holds 300 characters.
- Comment and Details travel together. Changing only the comment still gives the visits the call's current details too, and the other way round.
- Never the Resolution. Typing in the Resolution document does not raise the offer.
The copy is part of the same save as the call, so either both are saved or neither is.
A newly booked visit is different, and never carries the Details document at all. When you schedule an engineer, the visit's description is the call's Comment, and its notes are what you typed in Notes in the Schedule engineer dialog, or the Comment again if you left Notes empty. The words of the call's Details reach an engineer's visit only through the update switch, when you later change Details on the saved call and save with the switch on.
How do I stop the change going to the engineers' visits?
Turn the switch off in the Scheduled visits card before you press Save. The band greys, the will update flags go from the rows, and the sentence changes to The followed by the number of visits and scheduled visits keep the comment and details they have now. Your call is saved and the visits are left exactly as they were.
- Change the call's Comment or Details on the call screen.
- Turn off the switch in the band at the top of the Scheduled visits card.
- Press Save.
The switch is not remembered. Every call opens with it on, whatever you chose on the last call, so check it each time you change a call's words and do not want the engineers' copies touched.
What does the warning about a finished visit mean?
The warning means one or more of the visits that will be updated are already finished, and they will be rewritten along with the rest. With the switch on, the band adds a line such as the engineer's name followed by 's is finished — it will be rewritten too., or, when there are several, the number followed by of them are finished — they will be rewritten too.
A finished visit here is one at the action status Closed, Matched, Cancelled, Send Error or Finished, the same visits that carry a padlock in the Scheduled visits card. They are not skipped, so the record of a completed job will show the call's new words rather than what the engineer saw at the time. If that matters, turn the switch off before you save.
The warning is only a line in the band; there is no second question when you press Save. With the switch off it does not appear, because nothing is going to be rewritten.
When does the update band appear, and why is it still showing?
The band on the Scheduled visits card appears only on a saved call that has at least one engineer's visit, once the Comment is different from what the call was opened with or you have typed in the Details document. Put the comment back to what it was and the band goes away by itself.
The Details document is different: once you have typed in it, the band stays up even if you undo your typing. That is only the offer staying on screen. When you press Save, ABM Service compares the document you are saving with the one you opened, and if the words are the same and the Comment is also back to what it was, the visits are not touched. If the Comment is still changed, saving with the switch on still replaces every visit's description and notes.
The band never appears on a new call. A new call's visits are created with the call and already take its comment, and their notes are what you typed in Notes or the comment.
Why weren't the engineers' visits updated when I saved?
The visits are only updated when the save really changes the call's words and the offer was on your screen with the switch on. Nothing is copied when:
- The switch was off when you pressed Save.
- The Scheduled visits card is not on your layout. The offer lives on the card, so with the card hidden a save never copies anything.
- Nothing really changed. The comment is back to what it was, and the Details text is the same as when the call was opened.
- The documents could not be opened. When a document fails to load, the call screen shows it read-only and saves without its documents, so the Details cannot have changed. Only a changed Comment still updates the visits, and they are then given the Details text the call already holds.
- The call is new. A new call's visits are created with it, and there is nothing to copy.
- You changed only the Resolution. The Resolution is never copied.