The grid is the center of Basecamp and the reason to use it. Every client is a card carrying their numbers, so a roster you would otherwise have to click through one at a time is legible in a glance.
Sorting
- Recently active: who has been in the app most recently. The default, and the one you will use for the day's work.
- Least recently active: the same list upside down.
- Name A–Z and Name Z–A: for when you know who you are looking for.
Least recently active is the one that earns its keep
Coaching attention flows naturally to the people who are engaging: they log, you reply, they log again. The clients who quietly stop are the ones who disappear from your working memory, and they are the ones you lose.
Sorting by least recently active puts them at the top. Doing that once a week, and messaging whoever is at the top of that list, is one of the most useful habits Basecamp supports.
Filtering
Has notes narrows the grid to clients you have written notes about. Useful when you are preparing for sessions and want the people with context attached. Clear filters puts everything back, and the header tells you how many clients you are looking at and how many matched.
Filter down to nothing and the grid says so rather than showing an empty screen you have to interpret.
Reading a card
Each carries the client's stats with a sparkline for the trend and a small up or down badge comparing them with the previous month. The badge is the fastest signal on the screen. You are looking for a down arrow next to someone who was fine last month.
What the figures count is worth knowing before you read too much into them. They describe activity in the app: how much program exists, how many updates have come back, engagement, a sign-in streak, a latest weight. They do not describe effort or progress. The figures on a client card covers each one.
A client who is in the app right now is marked as active, so you can see at a glance who is there.
That marker means the app is open, and nothing more. Seeing who is online covers it in full, including how to use it without it reading as surveillance.
An empty grid
With nobody on your roster, the sidebar tells you plainly: no clients yet, invite one. Basecamp does very little that is interesting until you have somebody in it.