Does anyone even use Basecamp?
When considering whether we should build the integration of FreshBooks with Basecamp, there were a few questions all of us here wanted answered before proceeding:
1. How would our small business customers use Basecamp and FreshBooks together?
2. Would any integration we build bring enough benefit to our users for it to be worthwhile?
3. Does anyone even really use Basecamp that often?
I think we were able to answer questions one and two with some effective design sessions, user interviews, and experimentation. We came up with what I think are two great options on using FreshBooks and Basecamp together. It clearly doesn’t cover all the possibilities, but judging from the feedback we have received and usage to date, I think we have covered off 80% of the use cases that provide the most benefit.
Number three was a toss up. 37signals is clearly a darling of the Web 2.0 world and one of its first real success stories, so there is no doubt they have a lot of people using Basecamp. We didn’t know for sure how many businesses were using Basecamp and certainly had no idea how many would use it with FreshBooks. But in true Web 2.0 style, we just built it anyway. As it turns out, there are a lot of businesses that use Basecamp.
As of today, over 6% of the businesses that actively use FreshBooks have enabled access to their Basecamp accounts. Considering this was released less than a month ago, I would consider that a very high percentage and an indicator of just how many businesses use Basecamp.
We don’t really have any other service that we can compare this to, since Basecamp was the first project management service we have integrated with. However, we do have a number of businesses using online payment gateways. The most popular is PayPal. 39% of the businesses who actively use FreshBooks have enabled a PayPal account. That is impressive, but I’m guessing Basecamp will catch up to PayPal as time goes on.
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4:58 pm
I’ve been a Basecamp user since they launched, and I have to admit that this was one of the main reasons why I signed up for Freshbooks about a month ago. I’ve had my eye on your service for a while now, but the BC integration finally sealed the deal. I look forward to seeing what else you can do with it.
5:48 pm
Why do you think you nailed #2? I don’t consider the integration overly feature rich or robust and I certainly wouldn’t be beating my chest over it. I tried it out and have since abandoned it.
I do not consider “import” to be an integration between applications. Do you???
9:26 pm
Levi, I know you guys have had contact in the past with 37 signals, so you need to get some love with a blog post from them on their everything basecamp blog about your new integration and get the new top spot on their API extras page: http://basecamphq.com/extras.php If you haven’t already done so, I’d give them a ping to get that done ASAP and you may find that Freshbooks users won’t turn on basecamp, but instead the Basecamp users may turn on a new Freshbooks account.
10:50 pm
I never heard of basecamp until I found freshbooks. But looking at the ap, I don’t have a use for it. I have no incentive to even sign up for their free account. I just wanted to answer the question in the title of the blog.
11:11 pm
Hey guys…
You know my opion on the use cases… Combine all the time from a milestone and add to a single invoice line…
We even built our own basecamp API mashup to run time reports to get the accumulated time data by milestone, but I would much rather use freshbooks for this!
10:04 am
We use basecamp extensively, but we are still trying to figure out how to integrate properly. Unfortunately, all of our systems are disjointed, Basecamp, Highrise, ical, Freshbooks, and on top of that we have to send the info to Quickbooks, but we are working on a csv solution for that.
In the end, the disjointed systems work way better than fully integrated, expensive and difficult to use systems.
10:21 am
Thanks for all the comments everyone.
Steve…I am wondering what exactly made you abondon the integration? Have you had a chance to look at the videos. The integration is more than just importing…once you import your projects, you can use FreshBooks to track all of your time on all to-do lists. Is there something in particular that you think it’s missing?
Ryan, thanks for the tip. We will definitely be in contact with 37signals.
Dave, yes invoicing to milestones is definitely something we are looking at.
Alex, great point. Hopefully with more APIs being added, everything will eventually get smoother.
9:00 am
Yes, I saw the videos and you do cover some of what I want, but it’s too complicated. I really want to use time tracking in Freshbooks, but I don’t want to have to go back to import/export and keep importing basecamp projects as I add them in basecamp. Once I put my basecamp credentials in, I just want them to show up. Old and new basecamp projects should “just show up”. Make sense? Otherwise, there is too much back and forth going on.
11:00 am
Steve,
That is great feedback. Your idea seems very “painless”. The challenge is determining whether the majority of our users also want the Basecamp projects to “just show up”. We will discuss it over here, perhaps that is the best solution.
Thanks, Levi.
8:10 pm
I think everyone would want the data between Basecamp to automatically sync, that is why they added the Basecamp data. But even if not, a simple settings option could make the choice to turn the auto sync off.
I will make this comparison. I use Quicken and it annoys me when I click on the sync button and then I have to login to my password vault. And then once that opens I have to press another button to actually start the data sync. Once I input my account data and login to quickbook, I just want my new transactions to be there I don’t wan to do a tap dance three step process to have the system do what it was built to do, keep financial records accurate.
I think that is what everyone is getting at. That is why new services for photos and data backup are all focusing on having your files and pictures just show up on all your devices automatically so no syncing is neccesary, it is just there.
2:00 am
I’m considering using your product but only if it has full basecamp integration. We won’t use it if we have to manually add basecamp projects. Automatic syncing should be the only option.
4:31 pm
Sorry freshbooks, but your basecamp integration is pain in the rear.
I use basecamp, more than I use freshbook. Importing anything from Basecamp into fresh books is a messy and painful process that after 6 months with Freshbooks, I still havent been able to figure out.
Please make it easy! It’s soooo difucult to import anything from basecamp into frshbooks, without creating a big mess in my frshbooks account.