The Scenario
You are an operations lead at a consulting firm. Twelve new client engagements just closed and you need 12 Basecamp projects set up from the same onboarding template before the week ends.
Your Excel workbook has 12 rows in the Clients tab: column A is the client name, column B is the engagement description. Every project should use template ID 11223344.
The bad version of this week:
- You open Basecamp, click "New Project," type the first client name, add the description
- You choose the template, wait for it to load, confirm
- On client 6, someone messages asking why the projects are not showing up yet
- You spend three hours doing what a workbook could drive in seconds.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI is an AI agent inside your Excel workbook that reads the Clients tab and instantiates every Basecamp project from the template.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Read my Excel table of client names and create one Basecamp project per row using template ID 77665544, writing the resulting project IDs back to column D.
SheetXAI iterates through all 12 rows, creates each project from the template, and writes the new project IDs back to column D.
What You Get
12 Basecamp projects created, each from the same template:
- Correct client name — each project named after the client in column A
- Template applied — all standard to-do lists, schedule slots, and vault folders in place
- Project ID written to column D — your tracking workbook is now a live reference to each project
The template does the structure. SheetXAI does the scale.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Client lists from CRMs and deal rooms are always a bit rough.
When client names have inconsistent formatting
Some are "Acme Corp," some are "ACME CORP," some just "Acme."
Normalize the client names in column A of the Clients tab to title case. Then create one Basecamp project per row from template ID 11223344 using the normalized name and description from column B. Write the new project ID to column C.
When descriptions are missing for some clients
A few rows in column B are blank because the engagement brief is not finalized.
For each row in the Clients tab, if column B is blank, generate a two-sentence project description from the client name in column A and the deal type in column D. Then create the Basecamp project from template ID 11223344 using the client name and the generated or existing description. Write the project ID to column E.
When different client tiers need different templates
Enterprise clients use template 11223344. Starter clients use template 55667788.
For each row in the Clients tab, read column C (tier). If "enterprise," use template ID 11223344. If "starter," use template ID 55667788. Create one Basecamp project per row using the correct template, client name from column A, and description from column B. Write the project ID to column D.
When you need to invite the client contact at project creation
You have the primary client contact email in column D and want them added as a guest immediately.
For each row in the Clients tab, create a Basecamp project from template ID 11223344 using the client name in column A and description in column B. Once each project is created, add the email in column D as a guest. Write the project ID to column E and invite status to column F.
The pattern: the template handles structure, the workbook handles scale, SheetXAI handles both at once.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any client list workbook, then ask it to spin up the Basecamp projects from your template. The Basecamp integration is included in every plan. See also how to sync Basecamp project access from an Excel sheet or the Basecamp in Excel overview.