Editor’s Note: While Basecamp remains functionally the same, there have been plenty of updates since we originally wrote this resource in 2021. So, we’ve made some changes and added new information about how we use Basecamp 5 in 2026.

Basecamp is our tool of choice for project management. It’s a solid platform, and we’re excited to share it with you.

The whole point of Basecamp is to keep project stuff in one place—one place everyone can access. As the official record, Basecamp reduces the possibilities for miscommunication, so we all work more efficiently.

Basecamp improves on email because team members can be tagged in—or out—of a message or task at any point without forwarding a multi-threaded email chain.

Sound good? Well, let’s get started.

How to Get Basecamp

We’ll send you an email invitation to a project. If you don’t see it soon, check your junk or spam folder. Your email comes from an address with “basecamp.com” in it.

A sign-up link in that email will ask you to make an account:

All you have to do is click the big, blue button.

From there, you’ll set up your profile:

You can skip the profile photo if you don’t have one handy.

Next, you’ll see your Basecamp Home Screen, where you’ll see all of your projects:

Use the App or Work In-Browser

Basecamp offers native Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android apps.

Not interested in installing an app? You can work in Basecamp from your preferred web browser and have a nearly identical experience.

An Introduction to Basecamp’s Home Screen

From the Home Screen, you have plenty of options. You can toggle from an information-rich view to a more focused one using the arrows icon near the top:

Use the button to toggle grid view and hide the left and right sidebars.

My Bar

The navigation you see at the bottom, called My Bar (including My Tasks, My Events, Due Today, My Bookmarks, My Notes), will stay put whether you’re on the Home Screen or deep into a project:

Other Features

@-mentions

You can mention someone by simply “@ing” them. Type “@” and the first initial of their Basecamp user name, and you’ll see an autocomplete drop-down menu of project team members.

Pings and Notifications

Formerly called the Hey Stack, the Pings + Notifications sidebar is how Basecamp delivers notifications—and where you can see team members available to Ping. You can open or collapse the sidebar by clicking on Pings + Notifications in the top, right corner:

What to Know About Pings (and Chats)

A Ping is a private message to one or more team members. Because Pings are private, we use them sparingly—typically, to get quick clarification or work out scheduling. Anything you want on the record (ie. searchable for others, in-depth discussions) should go on the Message Board, documented in Docs & Files, or be assigned to a team member as a To-Do.

We may also include a Chat on your project. Need to notify the group that you’ll be out of office or have encountered a delay? Unlike Pings, Chat is where the whole team on your project can interact quickly. Like Pings, we use them for those quick conversations that don’t need a full message for deeper discussion.

Setting Your Notification Preferences

You have excellent control over the what, how, and when of Basecamp notifications. Everyone at HALO 22 has “Work Can Wait” settings set up, so we have time to focus and recharge away from the office. Learn more about Notification settings directly from Basecamp.

References and Links

We encourage you to include references and links often. (We have a whole resource on the usefulness of link inclusion!)

Basecamp allows you to grab links to Messages, Docs & Files, and more. Once you paste a Basecamp link into a text field, it’ll automatically reformat the linked text to include the location of the link in Basecamp. Here’s an example:

Simply paste a Basecamp link into a text editor to start.

In the time it takes to blink, the raw Basecamp URL will automatically turn into a reader-friendly link.

Linking creates References, which make it easy to jump to another area of Basecamp without finding that thread all over again. Learn more about how it works from Basecamp Help.

Rich Text

You can style rich text using headlines, bulleted lists, highlights, etc. More importantly, you can drag files into text fields as well. So, if a picture is worth a thousand words, drag that JPG, GIF, or PNG file into the text editor.

If you’re a Markdown fan like Spratte, you’ll love that Basecamp supports Markdown formatting.

Boosts

Boosts are small (no more than 16 characters) acknowledgments for something someone said. Lighter weight than a full comment and delivered in batched notifications throughout the day, these are great for showing agreement, appreciation, or simply confirmation that you’ve seen something.

Since these are delivered via delayed notifications and may not be crystal clear, we don’t rely on Boosts for approvals to move forward. Instead, we’re looking for explicit approval in a comment.

Searching

As the home screen instructs, you can use Shift + J to search Basecamp or access the jump menu.

Archiving vs Deleting

We advocate not deleting anything unless it’s a duplicate or other error.

Instead, we archive just about everything. As we move through your project, some messages, to-dos, and docs may become dated. To keep things simple we may occasionally go through and archive stale items.

If you ever need to review something, archived items do appear in search results.

Key Tools We Use

To-Dos

We use Basecamp to get things done. To-Dos are the best way to make sure that happens.

Organizable into lists, To-Dos are assignable to one or more people on the project. Self-assigning is a great way to signal the team that you’ve got something handled.

Selecting a due date for a To-Do will put this on Basecamp’s Calendar as well. (This also includes date ranges—perfect for scheduling a sprint or a marketing push.) We’ll come back to the Calendar in just a bit.

Message Board

Think of the Message Board like Basecamp’s version of email. Each time you create a message, there will be a subject line at the top, then your notes.

Drafts and Scheduling

If you’re working on a message and need to pause, click or tap “Save a draft,” in the top right, and Basecamp will keep it around for you to finish later.

You can also schedule a draft to post later.

Learn more about using Drafts and Scheduled Posts from Basecamp.

Message Notifications

You can select who is notified when posting a message:

Being selective with notifications is always appreciated.

When selecting who to notify on messages, To-Dos, etc., pause and ask: Does everyone need to be notified? Be selective when you can. In real life, it’d be rare to stand in the middle of the office and declare something so that everyone heard it, right? Consider who’s best suited to see your message first. You can always @-mention others later as needed.

Comments

Once the message is up, the team can respond via the comments section below your message. Keep comments on the original topic as much as possible. If you have a question or feedback about another element of the project, find or create a new space to discuss it rather than crossing streams. This makes it easier to find and track the right discussion later on.

Docs & Files

Basecamp-native documents are good for reference materials and developing brief copy. A great feature here is that Basecamp maintains a changelog for the document. You can revert to or review an earlier vision at any time.

We may use Docs & Files to link to a Google Doc (or Sheet) from Basecamp for more involved copy. Google Docs remain the best tool for more collaborative and detailed content work.

File posting is another significant advantage. If it’s uploadable, it can live in Basecamp. You can hit the upload button or drag and drop to the window. You can update with new versions of files as well. This version history allows Basecamp to function as a repository for project-specific files—and maintains access to previous versions.

We also make extensive use of Dropbox at HALO 22, but we aim for a Basecamp-first sharing approach with our clients to minimize the number of tools we use.

Schedule

The Schedule is a combined event and to-do calendar accessible from the project’s Home Screen. You can quickly send events from this calendar to Google, Apple, or Outlook.

If your project involves keeping track of content progress, we’ll do that using Card Tables. They’re “Basecamp's take on a Kanban board,” and are a great way to visualize progress. Don’t worry—we’ll set them up for you once we know more about your content needs, and we’ll provide customized usage instructions once that’s done.

Tools We (Probably) Aren’t Using in Your Project

Automatic Check-Ins

We use Automatic Check-Ins internally at HALO 22, but don’t implement them for client projects automatically. These check-ins are questions for you prompted by Basecamp. Think of it as an asynchronous status meeting on a specific subject. If you think this is something that’d be useful for your team, let’s discuss it.

Email Forwards

We’re not big on Email Forwards as part of our workflow. Rather, we copy and paste the relevant parts of emails into messages on the Message Board, or in the notes of To-Dos. That approach encourages collaboration rather than passive storage and comments.

Hill Charts

Hill Charts are a visual way of tracking progress—we’ve found this to be a bit fiddly so far. If we suddenly discover it’s a fantastic visualization, we’ll check in with you on introducing it.

The Needle

The Needle shows overall project progress, but we find that it’s best for very straightforward projects. Otherwise, it can introduce confusion and create unnecessary project management overhead.

That’s all for now. Jump in, and we’ll look forward to seeing you in Basecamp.

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