Business Central 2026 Release Wave 2: Update 29.0 Preview

Overview

This post walks through the features Microsoft has published for Business Central 2026 Release Wave 2, based on the update 29.0 public preview. You will also find what the retirement of Release Plans means for how you track future updates. 

 

Key Takeaways 

• Microsoft opened the public preview for update 29.0 in the first week of September 2026, with general availability expected in the first week of October. 
• The preview applies to sandbox environments only. Production and on-premises environments do not get these features yet. 
• Expense Agent gains the most ground this wave, picking up approvals, interim approvers, travel requisitions and better duplicate detection. 
• Subcontracting, quality inspections and warehouse handling all improve, which matters if you run manufacturing or distribution. 
• Reporting gets a substantial rebuild through composable layouts, report themes and an updated Word add-in. 
• Microsoft stops publishing Release Plans from September 2026 and moves disclosure to the AI at Work roadmap. 

 

What the Update 29.0 Preview Actually Covers 

Microsoft published the update 29.0 preview details on 3 September 2026. The preview runs from the first week of September until general availability in the first week of October 2026. 

Only sandbox environments can run it. You can either create a fresh sandbox on version 29.0 preview or update an existing sandbox, which lets you test the release against your own data and extensions. 

Microsoft deletes preview sandboxes 30 days after general availability, so expect them to disappear in early November. Preview features carry restricted functionality and supplemental terms, which means you should not rely on them for live processes. 

Our team at Tecvia tracks each wave as it moves from preview to release. If you want a sandbox set up for testing, our implementation team can arrange it. 

 

Release Plans Are Retiring: What Changes for You 

From September 2026, Microsoft stops publishing Release Plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. New Business Central capabilities now appear on the AI at Work roadmap instead.  

Existing release plans stay online for historical reference. Features in update 29.0 no longer link back to a release plan entry, which is why some items below have detail pages and others do not. 

This changes how you plan ahead, because there is no longer a single six-monthly document to work from. We covered the practical impact in our post on Business Central release plans retiring. 

 

Copilot and Agents 

Microsoft continues to build out agents rather than chat features. Payables Agent gets sharper matching, and the MCP Server picks up query capability. 

 

Feature	What It Does
Improve purchase order matching in Payables Agent	Matches on line amounts and expected receipt dates, and aligns draft finalisation with Receipt on Invoice settings
Run data queries with MCP Server	New MCP tools let you define, validate and run custom data queries where no API exists

 

 

Expense Agent   

Expense Agent arrived in Wave 1 and matures quickly here. Six changes land in this preview, most of them aimed at approval and compliance gaps. 

Feature	What It Does
Expense Agent supports approval process	Reviews submitted reports with AI policy validation that flags noncompliant lines
Add interim approver when submitting the expense report	Routes submissions through a temporary reviewer before final approval
Manage travel requisitions with Expense Agent	Plans and approves travel in advance, with support for multiple travellers
Add date range and vehicle types to mileage calculation	Sets mileage rates by effective date range and vehicle type
Improve duplicates prevention in Expense Agent	Detects duplicates against already posted documents
Calculate withholding taxes automatically in expense report	Works out employee withholding tax inside the report

 

E-Commerce and the Shopify Connector 

Shopify B2B is the headline here. If you sell to trade customers as well as consumers, this wave closes a real gap. 

Feature	What It Does
Manage Shopify B2B companies, catalogs and pricing	Maps company tax identifiers, manages B2B catalogues and controls price sync
Keep Shopify connections current	Moves to Shopify’s July 2026 API, adds secure access tokens and clearer diagnostics
Control sales document creation for Shopify orders and returns	Lets you use the Shopify order number and review contacts before creating documents
Match Shopify tax lines with the Tax Matching Agent	Suggests tax jurisdictions with confidence levels and rate differences for review
Synchronise tariff numbers and countries of origin	Includes HS codes and country of origin in product sync
Process Shopify order changes, exchanges and refunds	Keeps edited and exchanged orders aligned when you create sales documents

Anyone running the connector should note the API change. Shopify supports each API version for 12 months, so staying current is not optional. Our Shopify partner page covers how we handle these upgrades. 

 

Financial Management and Electronic Documents 

Withholding tax moves into the standard product, having been a localisation feature previously. Excise duty handling also broadens. 

Feature	What It Does
Calculate withholding taxes for vendors	Brings vendor withholding tax into the standard version
Use withholding taxes with employee transactions	Calculates and posts withholding tax on employee payments
Calculate multiple excise duties per item	Supports several excise duties on one item
Enable accelerated depreciation methods for fixed assets	Adds compliant accelerated depreciation calculation and reporting
Set up vendor specific number series for self-billing invoices	Meets supplier requirements and improves invoice traceability
Exchange EDI documents via E-Documents	Sends and receives orders and payments using the Peppol BIS 3 EDI standard

EDI through E-Documents deserves attention. Peppol already underpins the direction of travel for UK finance teams, which we set out in our post on the 2029 e-invoicing mandate. 

 

Supply Chain Management 

Subcontracting dominates this section. Microsoft moved subcontracting into a dedicated app during Wave 1, so this release fills in the practical gaps. 

 

Feature	What It Does
Set up and explore subcontracting more easily	Adds assisted setup, notifications for missing setup and Contoso demo data
Use inventory put-aways and picks for subcontracting	Lets basic warehouse setups handle subcontracting alongside normal inbound and outbound work
Carry subcontracting instructions into purchase orders	Passes routing comments and attachments through to the subcontractor
Migrate Italian legacy subcontracting data to the Subcontracting app	Moves setup, prices, and document references, with sandbox verification first
Reduce manual work in quality tests and inspections	Fills in passed and failed quantities automatically and links posting errors to the blocking inspection
Post direct transfer orders from warehouse-enabled locations	Supports direct transfers from locations needing picks or shipments
Work more efficiently with manufacturing documents and capacity calendars	Creates released orders from the Planning Worksheet and makes capacity calendars easier to maintain

Quality management continues to build on the extension introduced in Wave 1. Manufacturers running batch or lot processes should test this early. Our manufacturing and engineering page explains how we approach these configurations. 

 

Reporting and Data Analysis 

This is the largest single section of the release, with 14 changes. Composable layouts sit at the centre of it. 

Report themes let administrators set a consistent look for PDF output. You can apply defaults globally, per company, per report or per layout. Header and footer layouts become reusable across document reports, which removes a lot of duplicated design work. 

The Word add-in gets new design components, conditional visibility through a HideIf control, and controls for building themes and headers. Financial reporting also improves because you can define report packs. You can run several reports into a single PDF. You can trace how a general ledger account feeds a calculation. 

Two smaller changes matter for audit. Financial report definition changes now log automatically, and system audit fields become available in analysis mode and in profiles. If you already use Power BI with Business Central, the new report inbox APIs open up further automation through Power Automate or MCP. 

 

User Experiences, Governance and Platform  

Everyday usability picks up several practical wins. A new review bar shows documents where agents need human input, and Tell Me remembers recent searches. Lookups now suggest your most recently used records, and you can preview images without leaving Business Central. 

On the administration side, you can turn SIFT indexes on and off in the application. Open in Excel actions now log to telemetry, which helps with compliance and security investigations. 

The platform change worth flagging is the new data model for table extensions. All fields on an AL table now sit in the same database table, so database operations involving extensions run faster. 

 

Sustainability Management 

Sustainability continues to mature into something UK businesses can report from. Seven changes land here, including EUDR certification information, carbon footprint tracking for fixed assets and estimated footprints on service invoices. 

You can also calculate emissions in purchase documents using formula-based inputs, track carbon in item and reclassification journals, and reverse sustainability ledger entries directly. Businesses in food and beverage or distribution facing customer ESG questions should look closely at the EUDR and item tracking changes. 

 

Development 

Microsoft lists more than 20 developer changes, so this section is deep. Highlights include running AL tests from command-line and CI/CD workflows, AI agents that profile slow sessions or debug recorded failures, and indexes that span base tables and table extensions. 

 Interfaces gain default implementations, tables warn you when they approach SQL column limits, and integer fields can migrate to BigInteger with compiler warnings. Full details sit on Microsoft Learn if your developers or partner need them. 

 

Our Thoughts on Business Central 2026 Wave 2 

Wave 1 gave you agents. Wave 2 makes them usable in a real approval chain, which is the harder problem. 

Expense Agent is the clearest example. An agent that captures receipts is useful, but an agent that routes reports through interim approvers and flags policy breaches replaces an actual process. Travel requisitions push it further still.  

Subcontracting is our second pick. Basic warehouse support means smaller manufacturers can finally use it without moving to advanced warehousing, and carrying routing instructions into purchase orders removes a common source of error. 

The reporting work is quietly significant. Report themes and reusable headers cut the cost of branded documents, which has been a persistent expense for customers with heavily customised layouts. 

We would also flag the Release Plans retirement as the change with the longest tail. Tracking what is coming now takes more effort, not less, and you will want a partner watching the roadmap on your behalf. 

 

What This Means for Your Business 

Every business runs Business Central differently. Some of these features will apply the moment they arrive. Others need configuration, testing or a licence review before they deliver anything. 

The preview window is short, so the sensible move is to spin up a sandbox now and test the changes that touch your processes. General availability follows in October, and updates then roll out inside the window your administrator sets. 

At Tecvia, we work with businesses across manufacturing, distribution, food and beverage, life sciences and medical devices. We can identify which Wave 2 changes matter for your setup and check that your extensions still behave. Take a look at our full Business Central features overview, then speak to the team and we will walk you through what is changing.