If you would like to track the depreciation expense of buildings and equipment, you should investigate the fixed asset program that comes with Peachtree Complete and Premium.
The key is to be sure you are using Peachtree FAS and not Peachtree Fixed Assets. FAS is a fixed asset program that is new to Peachtree in the past year or two and is more powerful and includes the capability to import from Excel. The FAS program is included on the Peachtree Complete 2005 CD program disk, but it is installed separately.
This is a quick overview of the Peachtree FAS program. Under the FILE command, be sure the wizards are turned on.
Use FILE/NEW COMPANY to set up FAS to track the assets of your company. Follow the wizard. When you come to this question, the database to use is <default>. Once you have completed the initial information, you'll come to the EDIT COMPANY screen. Edit any of the fields here as needed.
At the bottom of the EDIT COMPANY screen, notice the MAP TO PEACHTREE button. Peachtree Accounting must be running for this step and the company you are working with <i>MUST BE OPEN</i>.
Click MAP TO PEACHTREE and highlight the company whose books you'll be linking to. Now click OK in the lower left corner of the EDIT COMPANY window.
Now the GROUP VIEW - ACTIVE ASSETS window comes up. This window will be open whenever you are using FAS. Use FILE/COMPANY UTILITIES/CUSTOM IMPORT to bring data into FAS from an external spreadsheet program. Choose a data type of CSV.
Alternatively, use the GROUP VIEW window to define your assets. Click on NEW in the lower left of this window. Fill out the fields that come up with the Asset Creation Wizard.
Use DEPRECIATE/DEPRECIATE to calculate the depreciation and to put the latest depreciation adjustment into Peachtree Accounting as a General Journal Entry. Select the depreciation book that you want to use under BOOKS. Be sure that the CALCULATE DEPRECIATION THROUGH field has the same date as the period end date being used in Peachtree Accounting. Click EXECUTE.
Print the report that is displayed, then close the report window. Now use DEPRECIATION/POST DEPRECIATION to send the GJE to Peachtree Accounting. Be sure you have selected the proper values for BOOK, PERIOD POSTING DATE, and JOURNAL ENTRY DATE. First choose PREVIEW, then if all looks ok, choose POST.
Finally, switch to the Peachtree Accounting company TASKS/GENERAL JOURNAL ENTRY/OPEN to see if the entry has been recorded correctly.
July 2015 Update:
"FAS 50 Asset Accounting for Peachtree" has been renamed as "Sage Fixed Assets - Lite Depreciation for Sage 50".
If you are looking to purchase fixed asset accounting software, also consider ProSeries® Fixed Asset Manager from Intuit.