Hi, DWA Accountant.

I can share some insights about how the process of changing the primary principal works in QuickBooks Desktop and ensure to route you to the support resources available to help you resolve this issue further.

QuickBooks has strict security protocols to protect data from unauthorized access. That's why they require you to verify the previous primary principal before letting you add a new one. Even with your headquarters' letter, QuickBooks can't make exceptions due to the information's confidential nature.

Doing payroll manually in Excel is not an ideal situation. I'd suggest contacting our QuickBooks support again to see if there are other ways they'll accept to verify the new primary principal person so you can utilize the full payroll functionality.

Additionally, you can check this article to learn about the different types of payroll contacts and how to update them in the system: Change your primary principal, payroll admin, or other payroll contact.

Please don't hesitate to post any questions or concerns again in this thread. The Community is here.