Changing what Clients can see and do

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Clients' Permissions in Projects

NOTE: If you're using Basecamp Personal, you won't be able to work with Clients in Projects — only those with paid packages can.

When a Client logs in, they'll see a Project just like your team does! The biggest difference is that they only see the items that have been made visible to them. Everything is private by default so you'll need to change the visibility of an item for them to see it:

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Screenshot of a client project as visible to a Client

Clients can post comments, messages, events, to-dos, files, etc. like a regular team member. They can use Pings like a regular team member.

Here’s what's different for Client Users in your account:

  • They don't see any badges or borders calling out client visibility
  • They don't see the visibility flags calling out items that are visible
  • They can't publicly share items
  • They don't see Hill Charts
  • They can't create new projects
  • They can't add people to projects
  • They can't remove people from projects
  • They can't administrate a project:
    • No editing a project's name, description, etc.
    • No modifying the Tools on a project
    • No setting up chatbots or webhooks on a project
    • No archiving or trashing a project
  • They can't be made Admins on the account

Which items can be shown to a Client?

You'll be able to decide whether a client can see:

  • Individual Messages on the Message Board
  • Individual Events on a Schedule
  • To-do lists
  • Card Tables
  • Check-in questions
  • Any Docs, Uploads, or Google Docs at the root of Docs & Files

You won't be presented with this decision when posting

  • To-do groups - visibility inherited from the to-do list
  • To-dos - visibility inherited from the to-do list
  • Cards - visibility inherited from the Card Table
  • Check-in answers - visibility inherited from the question
  • Comments - visibility inherited from the item you're commenting on
  • Any Docs, Uploads, or Google Docs within a folder - visibility inherited from folder
  • Folders - default to private
  • Forwards -  default to private
  • Chat - default to private

Seeing what’s visible to a Client

You'll see a flag on each item, letting you know whether it's visible to the Client, or private to your team:

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Here's how something private to the team looks:

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Changing What Items Clients See in Projects

All items in a project are private by default. If you need to switch the visibility of an item, click "Change" on the flag at the top of the post:

Screenshot of the post on the Message Board with a yellow flag

GIF of the Who's allowed to see this to-do list page where you can see the change of the client visibility

When you make a private item visible to a Client, they'll also be able to see:

  • all existing comments on that item
  • chat lines within the Chat tool that you make visible
  • answers to a Check-In question that you make visible
  • nested items within a folder you make visible
  • to-do groups in a to-do list you make visible

Clients will also be notified of future comments on a thread, chat lines in a Chat tool, and answers to a Check-In question. In the case of a Check-In question, the client won't automatically be asked the question, just subscribed to answers.


What Clients See vs What You See

Non-client users and client users will have two different views. Non-clients (like team members or outside collaborators) will see everything posted in a project, while clients will only see what you've allowed them to see.

Let's look at a direct comparison. Here's how a project would look for a non-client:

A project showing all tools visible to the team: Message Board, Docs & Files, To-dos, two Chat tools, Schedule, Card Table, and a Door.

And what's visible to the client:

The same project as above but from the client view. They can see one message on the Message Board, no folders in Docs & Files, no lists in To-Dos, only one Chat tool, the event in the Schedule tool, but no Card Table and no Door.

You'll notice that the client can't see:

  • the Message Board
  • the folder in Docs & Files
  • the To-Do list
  • the Internal Chat
  • the Card Table
  • the Door to the external link

This is all because they've been intentionally kept private from the client. And if you ever change your mind, it's easy to toggle visibility on and off!