Ugh, that stings. A buddy of mine runs a two person design shop and did almost the same thing, dropped like $1,800 on some pipeline tool, and his whole team just kept using Gmail and a shared Google Sheet. He finally canceled at renewal and said nobody even noticed it was gone. So I don't think it's you using it wrong, it's that these tools are built for teams with a dedicated ops person who lives in them all day. For a 3 person shop, a spreadsheet plus a shared inbox really does cover 90% of it.

Man, chasing 1/16 of an inch with a caliper will drive you crazy for zero payoff. Grout lines that tight only matter to the eye if they're off by a lot more than that, and once the grout is in and the room is furnished nobody on earth is spotting a hair off. I've seen guys burn whole days snapping lines every three rows and rechecking, and their job ends up looking the same as the guy who just laid it clean and kept his eye on the far wall. Honestly the tile guy at the home show was just showing off, and you let him get in your head over nothing.