Under the Business Info tabs select the sub-tab for About Your Business. Scroll down to Date You Incorporated and elect to edit that item. Enter the date you incorporated, and continue.
I am assuming you are selecting "yes the S-election was effective on...". then continue.
Then select No, it was not yet open for business, and continue. (I know, it's weird, but do it)
Enter the date your business actually started. Not the start date of the S-Corp. But the start date of the business "before" it was an S-Corp. Then continue.
Select Yes, already made S-Corp selection and continue.
Now scroll down and confirm the dates for:
- Date you incorporated.
- Date of S election
- Date business began (this date can be years before you incorporated, and that's fine)
Scroll down and Continue. Now work things through and it's no problem entering assets that were placed in service before the incorporation date. Note that when doing this, you'll be asked to confirm prior year's depreciation, and you can change/correct that prior depreciation if it's wrong.
