Business Central 2026 wave 1: the most important new features in Microsoft’s latest release
Microsoft has published the official plan for Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 release wave 1, a release that confirms a direction that is now very clear: a business management solution that is increasingly intelligent, more open to automation, stronger in local compliance, and more mature in handling real business processes.
This is not a release made up of minor adjustments only. There is a lot of substance here. The planned features cover the period from April 2026 to September 2026, although Microsoft notes that some dates or capabilities may still change before final release.
The official overview includes innovations across many areas: Copilot and AI agents, AL development, electronic documents, administration, finance, reporting, logistics, sustainability, national localizations, and e-commerce with Shopify.
In other words, Microsoft is not simply adding new features. It is redesigning the way Business Central is used, extended, and managed.
A release strongly focused on artificial intelligence, administration, and business processes
The most visible part of the new release is the area dedicated to Copilot and AI agents. In the official plan, we find a dedicated pane for managing agent activities, the ability to stop running activities, review AI-generated content directly within pages, visibility into emails processed by the payable agent, and even avatars for users who create or modify records in lists.
But the most important innovation is another one: the ability to design custom agents directly within Business Central.
On the administrative and architectural side, the release also introduces the ability to migrate to the cloud starting from any SQL database, along with an MCP server for the Business Central admin center, designed to allow compatible AI agents to query and use environment administration APIs in a conversational way.
This is a major turning point, because it takes the system beyond traditional configuration tools alone and connects it to the new world of AI applied to operational processes.
At the level of real business operations, Microsoft is also investing heavily in the supply chain: improvements in purchase invoices, drop shipments, approvals, production, quality control, management of images and item variant attributes, all the way to a topic that is especially important in European and Italian manufacturing: subcontracting in production processes.
The main new features, area by area
Copilot and agents
The artificial intelligence area is one of the richest parts of this release. Microsoft is planning capabilities for centralized management of agent activities, in-page review of generated content, interruption of running activities, and broader resources for Copilot extensions.
The most interesting innovation, however, is the new agent design tool, which brings into Business Central an experience for imagining, designing, testing, and prototyping custom agents using natural language instructions.
Localizations
This release also has a strong local compliance component. The official new features include improvements for the Czech Republic, the OIOUBL format with carbon footprint data, payment practices for the United Kingdom, electronic invoicing in France, a new framework for non-deductible VAT in Belgium, integrated Verifactu mode in Spain, payment time reporting in Australia, and the transfer of journal line descriptions to bank statements.
For Italy, the general page does not include specific tax-related innovations, but two very important themes still emerge: data residency in Italy and the strong impact on the production area.
Development
For AL developers, the roadmap is not especially long, but it is still interesting. Microsoft is introducing an MCP server for AL troubleshooting and BC-Bench to evaluate AL coding agents.
The message is clear: development on Business Central is moving ever closer to AI-based tools, not only for writing code, but also for analyzing it, evaluating it, and supporting diagnostics.
E-Commerce
The Shopify connector receives practical improvements: connector updates, custom collections for exported items, export with product options based on item attributes, use of checkout currency when creating sales documents from Shopify orders, and synchronization of product variant images.
For companies selling online, these are not secondary details, but features that reduce friction and customization needs.
Electronic documents
In the area of electronic documents, Microsoft continues to invest. New features include payments within the electronic document framework, default electronic document types in vendor templates, setup of service participants in company information, linking inbound electronic documents to purchase invoices, and preview of Peppol electronic invoices through a purchase draft page.
This is an area that is growing quietly, but it is becoming increasingly central to automated and compliant processes.
Financial management
Among the financial features, the highlights include self-billing invoices, vendor withholding taxes, taxes on plastic and sugar, expense management through dedicated reports, excise duties, and support for the Investment Boost incentive for fixed assets.
Here as well, the key theme is clear: expanding the product’s ability to handle real-world scenarios without immediately requiring external solutions or customizations.
System governance and administration
This is where the release takes on a highly strategic value. Microsoft introduces the ability to run reimplementation projects with the cloud migration tool, to migrate to the cloud from any SQL database, to meet data residency requirements in Italy, to audit user and group permissions across applications, and to connect AI agents to the admin center through an MCP server.
This package of innovations speaks primarily to partners, IT managers, and companies engaged in transformation initiatives.
Reporting and data analysis
The release brings improvements to the Power BI app for subscription billing, enhancements in financial reporting, new APIs to analyze approval workflows and permissions, modernization of analytical inventory reports, default document language at company level, richer demonstration data, and lifecycle control of report layouts.
These are not flashy innovations, but they are exactly the kind of improvements that often save many hours of work.
Logistics and production
Here we find a real construction site of improvements. New features include service orders from contracts with one line per order, independent posting of purchase invoices for drop shipments, email sending of posted shipments and return receipts, new filters for receipt and shipment lines, matching purchase invoices with multiple order lines and multiple receipt lines, reverse drop shipment, purchase quotes for contacts, approval of requisition worksheets and item journals, creation of purchase orders from drop shipment, improved usability in production, subcontracting, material quality control, images and attributes for item variants, and greater visibility of the Description 2 field across several pages.
Sustainability
The sustainability area continues to expand with new APIs and new report layouts on sales documents that display carbon footprint information. In addition, Copilot will be able to suggest gas emissions in sustainability journals.
The signal is clear: sustainability in Business Central is no longer an accessory element, but a dimension that Microsoft is embedding into operational and document-based processes.
Three truly revolutionary aspects of Business Central 2026 wave 1
1. Designing AI agents inside Business Central
In my view, this is the most disruptive innovation in the release.
We are not just talking about an assistant that suggests text or fills in fields. Microsoft is introducing an agent system capable of operating inside Business Central with permissions, logs, history, human oversight, and ERP context, while also adding a design tool to create custom agents with natural language instructions in a sandbox environment.
Why is this revolutionary? Because it shifts automation from a rigid model to a far more dynamic one. Until now, many automations in Business Central required AL, events, codeunits, scheduled tasks, APIs, and a fair amount of custom development. Tomorrow, a growing share of these scenarios will be able to start as an experimental agent, be tested in a sandbox, and then be turned into a concrete solution.
This is a real paradigm shift: the system stops being only a platform that executes instructions and becomes an environment where operational goals can be defined.
2. Cloud migration from any SQL database
This innovation is less visible, but it could have a huge impact in the partner ecosystem.
Microsoft is extending cloud migration tools to enable the creation of reusable migration engines from any SQL source, with a generic system-level module integrated into the cloud migration wizard. Developers can implement standardized AL interfaces for mapping, replication, and transformation, with shared tools and a common interface for monitoring errors and progress. These migration engines can also be delivered as extensions and reused across multiple customers.
Why is this revolutionary? Because it addresses one of the most delicate points in ERP projects: data migration, which is often handled in an artisanal way, with one-off scripts, Excel files, and highly manual processing. With this move, Microsoft is trying to transform migration from a process rebuilt from scratch every time into a repeatable and industrialized approach.
For partners and solution publishers, this can mean lower risk, greater repeatability, and a concrete acceleration of cloud adoption projects.
3. Native subcontracting in production processes, with special impact in Italy
Microsoft is introducing new standard capabilities for subcontracting in production, with logistics flows for transferring raw materials and components to subcontractors, flexible pricing, receipt of finished products from purchase orders with item tracking and warehouse handling, logistical transfer of finished products, and greater transparency across the entire process.
The especially interesting part, for those working in Italy, is that the current Italian localization already supports logistics for finished products and raw materials or components, but it is marked for replacement in favor of a new international standard solution, with upgrade logic and activation through a feature key.
Why is this revolutionary? Because this is not a marginal feature. In many Italian manufacturing companies, subcontracting is a core part of daily operations. Bringing this scenario into the standard product, with a clear direction even for those already using local capabilities, means reducing dependence on historical customizations and moving complex processes closer to a more sustainable standard over time.
For the Italian market, this is not just another new feature. It is a very deep change.
A special mention: the new purchase invoice matching
Among the operational improvements, special attention should be given to the ability to match a purchase invoice with multiple order lines and multiple receipt lines.
Microsoft is introducing a new experience that makes it easier to work with partial receipts, item tracking, multiple order references, and scenarios where receipts do not yet exist. Users will be able to review matched lines, correct quantities, manage price or amount differences, and, in some cases, also use the new automatic receipt option during posting.
I would not define this as revolutionary in an absolute sense, but for many administrative users it is exactly the kind of feature that removes everyday friction. And releases are often judged this way too: not only by what is surprising, but by what wastes less time.
Final thoughts
Business Central 2026 wave 1 sends a very clear message. Microsoft wants a business management solution that is at the same time:
- more intelligent, thanks to AI agents and the new MCP infrastructure;
- easier to adopt and manage, thanks to cloud migration, permission control, and assisted administration;
- closer to real business processes, especially in purchasing, production, logistics, and regulatory compliance.
If I had to summarize this release in one sentence, I would put it this way: Business Central is not just adding new features, it is changing its skin.
The traditional business management system, built only around fields, pages, and linear processes, is giving way to a platform increasingly able to assist, interact, orchestrate, and adapt. And this time, the change does not feel like a simple showcase presentation. It has a concrete impact on the daily work of companies, consultants, developers, and partners.
