NEW IN BUSINESS CENTRAL · VERSION 29
The most important new features – short and clear.
Twice a year Microsoft releases a major new version of Business Central. We summarize what matters – for users, for developers and for important deadlines. This time: version 29, 2026 Release Wave 2. As of October 6, 2026.
FOR USERS
The 10 most important new features in daily work.
Copilot chat in the style of Microsoft Copilot
The Copilot chat panel in Business Central gets a redesigned interface aligned with Microsoft Copilot – familiar interaction across Microsoft 365 apps.
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The Copilot chat panel in Business Central gets a redesigned interface aligned with Microsoft Copilot. Interaction patterns and navigation follow Microsoft Copilot, giving a more consistent experience across Microsoft 365 apps. It mainly benefits users who regularly use Copilot to navigate and analyze data, such as accountants, sales staff and administrators. Available as public preview.
Payables Agent matches purchase orders more precisely
The agent for incoming invoices now also compares line amounts and expected receipt dates with the purchase order – less manual matching.
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When matching invoices to purchase order lines, the Payables Agent now also uses line amount and expected receipt date. This helps it tell similar PO lines apart, for example service lines with quantity 1. The agent respects the „Receipt on Invoice“ setting, which can now also be set per vendor and per PO line. Draft warnings now cover amount differences as well as quantity; they are informational and do not block finalization.
Better control of agents
All agent tasks appear in a dedicated task pane. You review agent suggestions directly on the page, and permissions are easier to manage.
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A dedicated task pane, available from anywhere in Business Central, collects tasks from all agents. You review details, go to the record, and complete or dismiss tasks. Content generated by agents can be reviewed and edited directly on the page. When an agent requests more permissions, you can assign them right away.
Expense Agent for expenses and mileage
AI-assisted approvals, better duplicate detection, mileage by date range and vehicle type, and VAT calculated directly from expense reports.
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Expense Agent checks submitted expense reports against approval policies written in natural language and gives approvers guidance; the final approval stays with a person. It flags likely duplicates based on amount, date, merchant or receipt. Mileage rates can be set per validity period and vehicle type and are applied automatically. VAT can be calculated from expense reports, but accountants review it before posting. All in public preview.
Automated report output
Report outputs can be automated. Several financial reports run together and end up in a single PDF; changes to financial reports are now always logged.
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New report-inbox APIs let you automate report outputs, for example with Power Automate. Several financial reports can be grouped into a report pack that produces a single PDF – immediately or scheduled, to report inboxes or by e-mail. Changes to financial report row, column and report definitions are now always recorded in the change log, which makes auditing easier.
Invoices and quotes in your corporate design
Report themes, shared headers and footers and an updated Word add-in bring documents into your corporate design without programming.
Want to use your existing letterhead PDF? fastBACKGROUND does that in minutes.
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Report themes and shared headers and footers can be applied to document reports for consistent PDF output. Defaults can be set globally, per company, per report or per layout. The updated Word add-in adds building blocks for common parts such as addresses, amounts, signature lines and notes, plus samples for themes and headers/footers.
EDI straight from Business Central
Exchange business documents electronically via EDI with your business partners – as an extension of E-Documents.
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The E-Documents framework is extended to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with vendors and partners. Structured business documents can be sent and received without paper or manual steps. Peppol BIS 3 is supported, and further formats based on local or customer standards can be added. The initial scope covers order exchange and sending remittance advices. Public preview.
Shopify for business customers
Manage B2B companies, catalogs and prices from Business Central. Order changes, exchanges and refunds are processed cleanly; tariff numbers and countries of origin are synchronized.
More details
The Shopify connector supports B2B companies, B2B orders and market catalogs on all Shopify plans; catalog limits depend on the plan. For exchanges, returned and replacement items are imported together, and the replacement can be moved to a separate document. Tariff numbers and country/region of origin sync via an option on the Shopify Shop Card.
Subcontracting and quality inspections
Set up subcontracting more easily, carry instructions into purchase orders, use put-aways and picks for subcontracting – and less manual work in quality inspections.
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Once the Subcontracting app is installed, a setup guide helps, and warnings point out missing setup. Routing comments and attachments carry through to subcontracting purchase orders. Basic warehouse locations can use inventory put-aways and picks for subcontracting. Quality Management calculates passed/failed quantities automatically and lets you open the blocking inspection directly from the error message.
Faster through the working day
Bookmark list views and analysis tabs, recently used values in lookups, recent searches in Tell Me and image preview right in the web client.
More details
List views and analysis tabs can be bookmarked to the role center. Lookups show your recently used records at the top, and Tell Me (Alt+Q) offers recent searches. Image attachments such as JPG, PNG, SVG, WEBP or GIF open in a viewer in the web client without downloading.
Available = generally available and intended for production use. Preview = early version for trying out; not yet intended for production and partly not available in all countries.
FOR DEVELOPERS
The 10 most important new features for AL development and operations.
For everyone who develops, tests or operates Business Central extensions.
Page Scripting is generally available
Record flows in the web client and replay them automatically – no programming. Ideal for acceptance and regression tests after updates.
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The page scripting tool, which records and replays user actions in the web client, is generally available. It is fully localized and has accessibility and usability improvements. New capabilities include selecting multiple rows in grids and validating text in message and error dialogs. Customers, consultants and testers can build repeatable acceptance tests without writing AL code.
AL tests from the command line
AL test runs can be started from the command line and from build pipelines; compiler diagnostics are tracked in automated builds.
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ALTool can compile, deploy and run AL test projects from scripts or CI/CD pipelines. Results come back as structured JSON with pass, fail and skip counts. The same command works locally. Workspace builds can also write structured, per-project compiler error logs, for example for code-quality tracking.
AL language server and MCP server for AI agents
The AL language server can run standalone – for AI agents and other editors. The AL MCP server adds projects at runtime and can log diagnostics on request.
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The AL language server can run standalone and provides completion, navigation, references, rename and formatting outside Visual Studio Code – for AI agents and other editors. The AL MCP server can start without a predefined project and add AL projects at runtime. Diagnostics can be written to a configurable log file.
Analyze failures and performance with AI agents
Debug recorded failures with an AI agent and profile slow sessions with AI. Agents can also allocate free object IDs.
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Developers describe a failing scenario to an AI agent, which records a matching session and collects the snapshot for debugging. An agent can also schedule profiling of slow sessions, identify costly AL paths and summarize SQL and HTTP activity. Coding agents can find free object IDs within project ranges.
Interfaces with default implementations
AL interfaces can ship a default implementation – adding methods no longer breaks existing implementations.
More details
AL interfaces can include methods with default implementations, so existing implementing extensions keep working when a method is added. The RequiredPending attribute and AppSourceCop rules provide a managed path to make a method mandatory later – dependent developers get time to adopt the new contract.
More control over indexes
Turn indexes on and off in AL and define indexes spanning fields from a base table and its table extensions. A new data model also loads table extensions faster.
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Indexes can be turned on or off from AL code, so app publishers can ship index management that matches their features. With the new data model, all fields of a table, including table-extension fields, are stored in the same database table, which speeds up operations involving table extensions. Keys can span fields from the base table and its extensions.
Extensible, data-driven test suites
AL test suites can be extended and driven by test data – less duplicated test code, better coverage.
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AL tests can be parameterized and fed from reusable data sources. Lifecycle handlers take care of shared setup, cleanup, logging and test reporting. Test data and lifecycle behavior are separated from individual test procedures, which reduces duplicated code and standardizes execution.
Simpler setup in Visual Studio Code
Setup and authentication for AL extensions in VS Code are simplified; objects in connected environments can be discovered directly.
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The AL extension acquires the required .NET runtime automatically and uses Visual Studio Code authentication by default, which reduces setup locally and in browser-hosted environments. Developers and coding agents can find objects in a connected environment even before symbols are downloaded; results include the owning app metadata needed for dependencies.
Clean namespaces and symbols
Objects with the same name in different namespaces can be translated, and global symbol resolution can be restricted to a minor version.
More details
Translations are now namespace-aware: same-named AL objects in different namespaces can be translated independently, and existing translations stay valid. Global symbol downloads can be restricted to the major and minor version from app.json while still using the newest patch, which makes builds more reproducible.
MCP server runs data queries
The Business Central MCP server no longer just reads pages but also runs queries – important for AI-driven integrations.
More details
New tools in the Business Central MCP server let you define, validate and run custom data queries. AI-driven applications can then query data for which no API exists.
ANNOUNCEMENTS & DEADLINES
What Microsoft has announced – and what follows from it.
January 1, 2027
Germany: mandatory e-invoicing for issuers begins
Since 2025 all German companies must be able to receive e-invoices. From January 1, 2027, companies with more than EUR 800,000 turnover in the previous year (2026) must issue domestic B2B invoices as e-invoices – from 2028 this applies to everyone. Structured formats according to EN 16931 such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD are required; a plain PDF is no longer sufficient.
What this means for you: With E-Documents, Business Central provides the basis for XRechnung and ZUGFeRD. Have setup, master data and document flow checked now so your invoices go out correctly at the turn of the year – we are happy to help.
Source: German Federal Ministry of Finance: e-invoicing FAQ (German) ↗
April 30, 2031
Dynamics NAV: end of service plans and licenses
Microsoft announced on July 28, 2026: from April 30, 2031, Dynamics NAV service plans (Enhancement and Advantage Plan) and subscription licenses can no longer be renewed, and no additional users can be purchased.
What this means for you: Your NAV keeps running with existing licenses – but growing, renewing or relicensing is no longer possible. If you still run NAV, plan your move to Business Central now, not in 2030.
January 11, 2028
NAV 2018: end of extended support
From this date Microsoft no longer provides security updates for Dynamics NAV 2018, the last NAV version. Many older NAV versions already receive no updates.
What this means for you: Without security updates the risk increases, especially for systems with internet access. We continue to support your NAV after that date and plan the right time for your move with you.
Since version 29
SOAP web services on standard pages removed
In Business Central 29, SOAP endpoints for Microsoft standard pages are permanently switched off.
What this means for you: Integrations that still use SOAP on standard pages stop working after the update. Have your integrations checked beforehand and switched to APIs.
September 2026
New Microsoft roadmap instead of release plans
Microsoft no longer publishes classic release plans. New capabilities will appear continuously in the „AI at Work“ roadmap.
What this means for you: New capabilities arrive more often and in smaller steps. We keep an eye on it for you and summarize what matters here.
IMPORTANT FOR YOUR UPDATE
What to look out for now.
Update window
Business Central online: administrators can schedule the update to version 29 within five months – the window ends in February 2027.
On-premises
Installations on version 24 or earlier must first upgrade to version 25 before moving to 29.
Integrations
SOAP web services on Microsoft standard pages are removed for good. Integrations that still rely on them should be switched before the update.
Source: Microsoft Learn – What’s new in Business Central 29. Dynamics NAV announcement: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog, July 28, 2026. Own summary by RS Business Technologies GmbH; we selected the features most relevant to our customers. Microsoft, Dynamics 365, Business Central and Copilot are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.