I appreciate you for performing some steps to resolve this and for sharing an update with us, @ihalsall.
I'll share some insights on how to get around this issue. You'll want to get in touch with your company admin. There's a great chance they've changed your user access. Thus, you're unable to access the employees and payroll feature.
If you're the admin of the account, I recommend contacting our support team. One of our live agents can securely look into your account and check the reason for the error.
They can also provide you additional steps to fix this issue. Here's how to contact them in your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account.
- Go to the Help (?) menu.
- In QB Assistant, enter the topic you need help with. You can also enter questions.
- Select Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.
- Choose either Start a chat or Call us.
Please ensure to check their support hours to know when agents are available so you can contact them at your convenience.
When everything is set, I got you this article that can guide you in running your payroll efficiently: How to run payroll in QuickBooks Standard Payroll.
I'm all ears if you need more help managing your payroll and employees. Just simply tag me in your reply and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Keep safe!