Business Central 2026 release wave 2: what's new (v29)

This review covers Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central changes from 1 August to 31 October 2026. It is for owners, finance teams and IT leads in Singapore and the wider Asia-Pacific region. It separates features that are generally available (GA) from those still in public preview.

At a glance

August. Known Senders in Payables Agent and e-document payment tracking became GA. Purchase drafts for Peppol electronic invoices entered public preview.

September. AI resources for Copilot extensions became GA.

October. Tools for agent tasks, reporting, Shopify and supply chain work became GA, alongside everyday, admin and developer tools. Expense Agent updates, new finance tools and EDI document exchange are public previews.

Version 29 changes some integration and admin tools, with more changes announced for version 30.

Microsoft lists 28.4 for August, 28.5 for September and 29.0 for October in its product update index. The September notes recorded a public preview of 29.0 for online tenants. The October notes mark the start of 2026 release wave 2.

Agents and Copilot

Known Senders and Copilot extensions

Known Senders in Payables Agent became GA on 7 August 2026. Admins can set email review rules and keep decisions for each sender. Those choices include asking for approval, approving processing or rejecting the sender.

AI resources for Copilot extensions became GA in September. Publishers can use Microsoft-managed Azure OpenAI resources to extend Copilot in Business Central. They can also bring a separate Azure OpenAI subscription where their needs call for it.

October's agent tools

October's GA agent tools improve purchase order matching in Payables Agent and make agent permissions easier to manage. They also cover managing tasks from all agents in a dedicated task pane and reviewing agent-generated content directly on pages.

The Microsoft Copilot chat experience is public preview in the same list. For background on the wider topic, see our article on artificial intelligence in Business Central.

Expense Agent: public preview

October's Expense Agent public previews include AI-Driven Approvals, VAT calculation and reporting, automatic withholding tax calculation, and better duplicate prevention in expense reports. Other public previews cover more countries and languages, mileage date ranges and vehicle types, and using assigned projects only in the web app.

The feature titles alone do not name the new countries or languages.

Finance and e-documents

Payment status and Peppol purchase drafts

Payments in the E-Document framework became GA on 3 August 2026. Users can mark an e-document fully paid, partly paid or unpaid. Payment data goes through access points based on the e-document setup. That data can include the collection date and amount collected.

The purchase draft page for Peppol electronic invoices entered public preview on 1 August 2026. Users can check an incoming invoice before posting and map its lines to items or general ledger accounts. Microsoft highlights invoices that lack item references or account mappings.

For Singapore readers, our GST InvoiceNow overview provides a separate starting point for local planning.

October's finance previews

The October release lists exchanging EDI documents as public preview under E-Documents. Finance public previews cover withholding taxes (WHT) with employee transactions, multiple excise duties per item, and vendor-specific number series for self-billing invoices.

These labels describe their status in the release notes. They do not confirm that a feature meets each country's tax rules.

Reporting

A record of report changes

Microsoft's audit guidance says Business Central records changes to financial report definitions from 2026 release wave 2. This happens without setup. The Change Log can show what changed, who changed it and when. The October notes mark this feature as GA.

Report design and output

October's GA reporting features include branding document reports with report themes and designing document reports, report themes and header/footer layouts with the updated Word add-in. Conditional visibility in the updated Word add-in is also GA.

Other GA features automate report outputs, combine multiple financial reports into one PDF, trace G/L account usage, and bookmark list views and analysis tabs. Our guide to reporting and analytics basics in Business Central covers the tools these changes build on.

Further GA entries cover the lifecycle of report layouts, simpler report datasets and reuse of header/footer layouts. The list also includes using system audit fields in analysis mode and profiles.

The New optional features section lists New Document Report Experience. It is disabled by default, rather than switched on for everyone.

Shopify and ecommerce

October's GA Shopify changes cover managing B2B companies, catalogues and pricing, plus processing order changes, exchanges and refunds. Other GA features control sales document creation for orders and returns, sync tariff numbers and origin values, and keep Shopify connections current. For the connector itself, see our Shopify and Business Central integration guide.

Supply chain and sustainability

Stock, subcontracting and manufacturing

October's GA subcontracting features carry instructions into purchase orders, make setup and exploration easier, and support inventory put-aways and picks.

Other GA features post direct transfer orders from warehouse-enabled locations and reduce manual work in quality tests and inspections. Working more efficiently with manufacturing documents and capacity calendars is also GA in October.

Carbon footprint features

October's GA features cover carbon footprint tracking for fixed assets, item journals and item reclassification journals. They also include estimates in Service Management and formulas to calculate emissions in purchase documents. Further entries cover reversing Sustainability Ledger entries and a specific calculation method when item tracking is enabled.

Everyday use and administration

Finding and viewing information

October's GA features preview images directly in the web client, show recently searched items in Tell Me, and show recently used items in lookups.

Under Power Platform, Map new Dataverse fields in Business Central is also GA. The agent list adds avatars for record creators and modifiers, plus updates to the Agent UI experience.

Tools for admins

Two more October entries are GA. Administrators can turn SIFT indexes on or off, and they can monitor usage of Open in Excel with telemetry.

For companies using Field Service

The August notes say new service item links now respect the Dataverse Convert to Customer Asset setting. New, uncoupled items create customer assets only when it is Yes. Already coupled items still sync regardless of that setting.

Developer changes

Page Scripting is GA in October. Running data queries with MCP Server is also GA.

October's GA AL tools let AI agents debug recorded Business Central failures and profile slow Business Central sessions. Other GA entries cover agents allocating free AL object IDs and AL language intelligence from AI agents and other editors.

Other GA development entries cover dynamic AL MCP workspaces and file logging for AL MCP server activity. Microsoft also lists command-line and CI/CD test runs, plus compiler diagnostics in automated builds.

What to plan for

Changes in version 29

The platform deprecation guidance lists three changes for version 29:

Microsoft pages can no longer be exposed as SOAP endpoints.

Windows PowerShell 5 is no longer supported for the affected on-premises and container admin modules. The replacements use PowerShell 7.

On-premises deployments can no longer use only data-defined permission sets through the earlier server setting.

The October notes also list mandatory switches that can no longer be turned off. These include the 'Manual' flushing method without requiring pick, default values for financial reports, and new communication texts for reminder terms.

Disabling SOAP web services on Microsoft UI pages and introducing UI support for masking sensitive data are mandatory too.

Announced for version 30

The same deprecation page has a separate section for 2027 release wave 1, version 30.0. It says Microsoft pages can no longer be exposed as OData endpoints from version 30.

It also says the Business Central admin center and its API replace uploads and installs through the Extension Management page. Removal of that page as an upload surface is expected in 2027 release wave 1. These are version 30 notices, separate from the changes in version 29.

Upgrade dates and licence keys

The October notes give online admins an update period ending in February 2027. On-premises deployments on version 24 or earlier must move through version 25 before version 29. If you still run Dynamics NAV, our NAV to Business Central upgrade page explains the path.

Microsoft's 1 October licence key announcement introduces the 28+ key version for on-premises versions 28 and later. Customers who upgrade to a new release must download a refreshed key.

Where to find the roadmap

Microsoft's 25 August announcement says new roadmap content moves to the AI at Work roadmap from September. Release Planner is due to retire by 15 November 2026. Established product release schedules stay the same.

What to do next

Step 1: Pick the changes that match your work. Name an owner for finance, stock, sales and IT checks before setting an update date.

Step 2: Test in a sandbox with cases your team knows. Include partial payments, invoice mappings, report changes and any Field Service links you use.

Step 3: Check integration endpoints, admin scripts and permission sets with your technical team. Add the mandatory switches and version 30 notices to that review.

Step 4: Choose a small scope for each preview pilot. Check country and language support, name a reviewer and keep the normal checks on tax and invoices.

Step 5: Ask extension suppliers which AI resources they use and how access is controlled. Confirm the upgrade path and refreshed licence key where needed.

Step 6: Train the people whose work will change, then agree the rollout date. Use the new roadmap for later reviews and check feature status again before wider use.

INFOC helps businesses plan, implement and upgrade Business Central. For help planning your next step, talk to the INFOC team about your needs, using our Business Central overview as a starting point.