Automated tax payment and filing are now mandatory for QuickBooks Workforce. Manual submissions are no longer supported, and the toggle to turn off automated taxes has been permanently removed.
Regarding your concern about payroll being locked, this risk stems from incomplete tax setup. To avoid this, go to Payroll overview and complete the To Do items to finish tax setup. Confirm that all warning flags or incomplete tax tasks are cleared from your dashboard and that there are no active holds on your payroll.
Also, verify that your Employer Identification Number (EIN), deposit frequency, funding bank account, and agency authorizations are current and accurate.
For more details and information, I encourage you to view these resources: