Using the Customer Map on the Calls and Scheduler Screens
The customer map draws the customers behind the calls you are looking at, beside the Calls list or the Scheduler board, so you can see where the work is and who is going there. It follows whatever the screen is showing: change the dates or the filters, and the map changes with them. Open it with the map button on the toolbar of either screen.
How do I open the customer map?
On the Calls screen, select Map on the toolbar beside the search box. On the Scheduler, select the map button beside To schedule, named Show the customers on a map. The map opens as a panel to the right of the list or the board.
- Open Calls or Scheduler from the navigation menu.
- Select the map button. Its tooltip reads Show the customers on a map.
- Select it again to close the map. Its tooltip then reads Hide the map.
The button stays pressed while the map is open. The map is closed until you open it, and while it is closed ABM Service does not load it at all, so it costs nothing to leave it shut.
The map follows the app's light or dark appearance, and has Google's own Map and Satellite choices at its top left and zoom buttons at its top right.
Which customers does the map show?
The customer map shows one marker for each customer that the screen's current question reaches, whichever page or order you are looking at.
- On the Calls screen, it shows the customers of every call the list is showing: the date window, Which calls, the filter rail, any column filters, the customer or invoice-to filter, and the search. It covers all the list's pages, not just the one on screen. Turning a page or sorting the list does not change the map.
- On the Scheduler, it shows the customers of the appointments on the board: the board's dates and the filter rail. The board only holds booked work, so these are customers somebody is going to. While the To schedule column is open, the map also shows the customers of the calls waiting in that column.
A customer appears once however many calls it has. A call with no customer on it has no place to be drawn and is not on the map. A customer whose location has never been set is not drawn either; a banner at the top of the map says how many are missing.
Can I see where my engineers are right now on the customer map?
No. The customer map on the Calls screen and the Scheduler shows customers, never engineers: each marker is one customer. Where one engineer has work at that customer, the marker wears that engineer's colour and initials or photo; where several have, it shows how many; and where nobody has yet, it is a hollow ring. ABM Service does not know where an engineer is at this moment, does not follow their phones or vans, and does not plan the order of their visits or their route.
To judge who is near a job:
- On the Scheduler board, each engineer's row shows where they are booked to be and when.
- On the Scheduler with the map and the To schedule column open, select a waiting call: the Nearby panel lists the booked appointments closest to that customer, with the distance in a straight line, and Put after places the call straight after one of them. Nothing is booked until you select the tick beside the placed call, named Book it.
- In a customer's sheet on the map, Directions ↗ opens Google Maps with the customer as the destination, where you can see the journey from wherever you choose.
What do the numbers under the map mean?
The line along the foot of the customer map counts what the map is showing. It reads, for example, "12 on the map · 30 calls · 4 to schedule":
- on the map — how many customers have a marker.
- calls — how many calls those customers have in the list or on the board, counting a call once even if several engineers are on it. It includes the calls of customers with no location.
- to schedule — how many of those calls nobody has been given an engineer yet. It only appears when there are some.
Before the first answer arrives the line says Loading customers…. The Key button at the right of the line explains the markers.
If the map's customers could not be read, a line over the foot shows the problem followed by — the map may be showing an earlier answer. The markers from the last good answer stay until the next one arrives; select Refresh to try again.
How do I move around the map and find a customer?
Drag the customer map to move it, and use the scroll wheel or the zoom buttons at its top right to zoom. Select Satellite at the top left to see aerial photography, and Map to go back.
The customer map has no Street View and no full-screen button. To see more of it, drag the line between the list or board and the map to make the map wider. To look at the street itself, select the customer's marker and then Directions ↗ in its sheet, which opens Google Maps in a new tab with the customer's location as the destination.
When you change what the screen is showing, such as the dates or a filter, the map moves and zooms to fit all its markers. If there is only one customer, it centres on that customer. Refresh, turning a page and sorting never move the map, so a town you have zoomed in on stays where it is.
Customers too close together to draw apart are grouped into a numbered circle. Select it to zoom in on them.
When you open a customer's sheet or another panel over the map, the map pans just far enough that the marker you are looking at is not hidden under the panel. It never zooms to do this.
How do I make the map wider or narrower?
Drag the line between the list or board and the customer map: drag it left to widen the map, right to narrow it. Double-click the line to go back to the usual width.
The line can also be moved from the keyboard. Press Tab until it is selected (it is named Resize the map), then:
- Left arrow widens the map and Right arrow narrows it, a little at a time. Hold Shift for bigger steps.
- Home makes the map as narrow as it goes, and End as wide as it goes.
- Enter or the Space bar puts it back to the usual width.
The map is never narrower than a strip wide enough for its banner, and the list or board always keeps enough room to be used. If you make the window smaller, the map shrinks to fit.
Does ABM Service remember the map?
Yes. ABM Service remembers, in this browser, whether the map is open and how wide it is, separately for the Calls screen and the Scheduler, so a map you keep open on the Scheduler is there every morning without appearing over your Calls list.
A saved layout of either screen also remembers whether the map is showing, and picking the layout opens or closes it. A layout does not remember the map's width, which stays yours.
In the ABM Service desktop app, the map's width lasts only while ABM Service is running. When ABM Service closes completely, with Exit on its icon beside the clock, when the computer restarts, or when an update is installed, the map opens at its usual width again; drag it back to the width you like. Whether the map is open still comes back with the layout the screen opens on.
When you open a call or a customer from the screen and then go Back, the map comes back looking at the same place and zoom, with the same customer's sheet open, as long as that customer is still in the list or on the board.
What if the customer map does not load?
The customer map says in words what is wrong, and the banner, the counts and the Which? list keep working, because they come from ABM Service and not from Google.
- Loading the map… — the map is on its way.
- Google Maps is not configured for this deployment, so there are no tiles to draw. Your company's ABM Service has no Google Maps key set up. The counts are still correct. Ask your system administrator, or whoever installed ABM Service, to set one up.
- The Google Maps script could not be loaded. The counts above are still current. Google Maps could not be reached, often because of the network or a blocked site. Close and open the map to try again.