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How to Find Engineers Booked Nearby and Use Put After

The Nearby panel on the Scheduler's map shows which engineers are already booked close to the call you are scheduling, so you can send someone who is in the area anyway. Put after then places the call straight after one of those visits, ready for you to book. It appears when the To schedule column is open, the map is showing, and you have picked up a call.

How do I see which engineers are booked near a waiting call?​

Open the To schedule column and the map on the Scheduler, then select a call's card: the Nearby panel opens along the bottom of the map, listing up to three appointments on the board nearest to that call's customer.

  1. Open Scheduler from the navigation menu.
  2. Select To schedule on the toolbar.
  3. Select the map button, named Show the customers on a map, beside To schedule.
  4. Select a card in the To schedule column.

The panel is headed by the call you are scheduling: its number, type and customer, then a line with the call's comment and the start of its details. Under that, the heading Nearby · is followed by the board's view and dates in the toolbar's own words, for example "Work week: 21/09/2026 – 25/09/2026", so you know which window the appointments come from.

On the map, dashed lines run from the customer to each of the listed appointments, each labelled with its distance, and the hollow rings of the other customers where calls are waiting and nobody is booked are drawn faintly, so the lines stand out.

Each row gives the distance, the engineer and when that appointment is. To send that engineer on to the waiting call next, select Put after on their row in the Nearby panel: the call is placed in their lane straight after that appointment, and waits for you to select the tick (Book it); Put after books nothing by itself. The call's customer needs a location on the map for the panel to measure from; without one the panel says the customer "has no location yet, so there is nothing to measure from."

What does each row of the Nearby panel show?​

Each row of the Nearby panel on the Scheduler map is one appointment already on the board, nearest first. A row shows:

  • The distance from the waiting call's customer, in kilometres to one decimal place, or here when it is at the same place. Distances are in a straight line, not by road, so allow for the journey.
  • The engineer, with their photo or initials.
  • The customer the appointment is for.
  • The day and time of the appointment, for example "Wed 30 08:00–09:00".
  • Put after.

The rows are chosen from the appointments the board is showing in its current window, so every row matches a marker you can see on the map. Appointments that have already finished are left out, and so are customers with no location on the map. Each engineer appears at most once for each customer, with their earliest appointment there still to come, so three rows mean three places or three people rather than one engineer's whole week at one site. The three closest are listed however far away they are; the distance tells you whether that is near enough.

How does Put after work?​

Put after on a row of the Nearby panel places the call you are scheduling in that engineer's lane on the Scheduler, starting the minute that appointment ends. It does not book anything: the job waits on the board with its tick (✓) and ✕, exactly as if you had selected a lit gap there.

  1. Select Put after on the row you want.
  2. Check the placed job on the board. The Scheduler scrolls to it if it is out of view.
  3. Select the tick beside it, named Book it, to book the call. Or drag it, change its length, or select ✕ to take it back.

The job must fit after that visit: it has to end before the engineer's next appointment and inside the working day, and cannot run past midnight. It takes the length set in the Scheduling bar over the board. If you want a slot later in the day, the lit gaps still show every other place it can go.

Why does Put after say it cannot place the call?​

When Put after cannot place the call, the Nearby panel says why, under its rows:

  • Put after needs a day or a week on the board — Month has no hours. Choose Day, Work week or Week on the Scheduler's toolbar.
  • The week is still being read — try again in a moment. ABM Service is still working out who is free.
  • "(engineer) is not on the board as it is filtered, or that day is not in view." The engineer is hidden by the filter rail or Which engineers, or the appointment is on a day the board is not showing.
  • "(engineer) has no room straight after that visit — the lit gaps show where there is." Something else is booked straight after, the working day ends too soon, or the job is too long for the space.

Try a shorter job length in the Scheduling bar, another row, or a lit gap instead.

Can ABM Service plan an engineer's route or show travel times?​

No. The Nearby panel on the Scheduler's map is the closest ABM Service comes: it measures in a straight line from the waiting call's customer to the three nearest booked appointments, and says nothing about roads, traffic or how long the journey takes. ABM Service does not work out the best order for an engineer's visits, does not plan a route for the day, and does not know where an engineer is at this moment. Put after only places the call straight after the visit you chose; it does not check that there is time to drive between the two.

To check a journey before you book:

  • Select the marker of the customer whose visit you would put the call after, then Directions ↗ in that customer's sheet. Google Maps opens in a new tab with that customer as the destination; type the waiting call's customer's address as the starting point to see the route and the time Google expects it to take. Choose a marker with no calls waiting at it: selecting a marker that has calls waiting puts the call in hand back in the To schedule column, or picks up that customer's own waiting call, instead of simply opening its sheet.
  • Leave room for the drive: after Put after, drag the placed job later in the engineer's lane before you select the tick, named Book it.

Why is the Nearby panel empty or not showing?​

The Nearby panel only appears while all three are true on the Scheduler: the To schedule column is open, the map is showing, and a call is in hand. Close either the column or the map and the panel, its lines and the faint markers go. While a customer's sheet is open on the map, the Nearby panel steps aside for it and comes back when you close the sheet.

When the panel is showing but has no rows, it says why:

  • "(customer) has no location yet, so there is nothing to measure from." The waiting call's customer has not been put on the map. Set its location and the panel can measure from it.
  • Nobody on the board is booked anywhere with a location in this window. Nothing on the board in this window is at a customer with a location, or everything has finished. Move to another window, or widen the filter rail.

If you close the panel with its Close button (×), it stays hidden for that call only. Pick up another call, or put this one back and pick it up again, and the panel returns.

What does Back do in the Nearby panel?​

Back appears at the start of the Nearby panel only when you chose the call from a customer's list of waiting calls on the Scheduler map. Its tooltip reads "Put (call number) back and show the calls waiting at (customer)".

Selecting Back puts the call back in the To schedule column and opens that customer's list of waiting calls on the map again, so you can choose a different one. A call picked from a card in the column, or by clicking a customer with only one waiting call, has no list to go back to, so there is no Back.