It's nice to see you back in the community thread, @DAC7047. I appreciate your troubleshooting efforts. I'll be sharing additional information about the manual payroll in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

I understand how time-consuming it is to perform payroll activities when experiencing challenges in QBDT. Since you've already done the steps provided by my colleague, I recommend closing your QuickBooks Desktop. Then, reopen it as an Admin. This way, it will update the changes, and you'll now have the option for manual payroll. 

You might want to track your payroll transactions in QuickBooks Desktop. Please refer to this article: Create a payroll summary report in QuickBooks.

Feel free to get back to us if you need further assistance with any QuickBooks-related concerns. We're always here, looking forward to assisting you. Keep safe!