Greetings, new to Basecamp here and just trying to figure out if this solution is going to work best for me. I welcome all comments and suggestions….

A quick synopsis of how and why we want to use Basecamp:

We operate an artist management company, representing bands and musicians. We are looking for a project management solution that will allow us to do the following:
1 – Host invoices, settlement sheets, and performance reports that can be accessible by the client at any time.
2 – Host asset files (promotional tools, music, photos, etc) for press and promotional companies. It is important that none of these people have access to any of the private files, like the invoices or performance reports. Do I have to set-up a seperate “company” to host these files and make them available to these people so they do not have access to the private financial files? And if so, is there a way to sub-divide these files by client? Is there a read-only permission setting for any level of access?
3 – Inter-office task and event tracking. This seems to be pretty clear in the demo and FAQ, so I believe that this function is already included.

My biggest concern at this point is being able to give access and make available certain documents without granting access to everything else. Is this possible within Basecamp?

Thanks for any advice and suggestions, I have spent the better part of this week researching and testing out various project management software apps, but I really like the interface of Basecamp and would prefer to stick with it.

B

You could probably make it work. THe trick is understanding how Private Messages and Files work in relation to where a person (or group of people) sit in any given company.

I’ve used “companies” in the past as divisions within one company or as groups of people. You can fudge some of the permissions to achieve what you want that way.

Honestly, the best thing to do is dedicate a chunk of time to building and testing. Do it internally with fake messages and things. Get other people in your office to help. If you can’t test the volume that you’d like with the free account, paying for one month’s full service might be an acceptable investment.

Thanks Andrew, I am slowly finding a way around the permissions issue, but alas, as there is no “read-only” setting, I still have to deal with the possibility of vendors changing original files.

Is there by chance a way to re-order files, or set the default “sort-by” preference?

You may want to look into Intervals. It has various access levels and you can decide which documents do you want your clients to see and access as well as restrict all those others you don’t want them to see. I think Intervals does everything you’re looking for. (http://myintervals.com)
Good luck!