Business Central 2026 release wave 2, version 29 (often shortened to BC29), became generally available at the start of October 2026. It adds more capable AI agents, a much stronger toolkit for financial reporting and document layouts, and practical improvements for manufacturers, distributors and Shopify sellers. It is also the first Business Central release without a Microsoft release plan behind it. This article covers what's in BC29, which changes matter most for UK SMEs, and how to plan your update.
Published October 2026: This article is based on Microsoft's documentation for Business Central update 29.0. Microsoft adds features through monthly updates during the release wave, so we'll update it as further changes arrive.
What is Business Central 2026 release wave 2?
Business Central online receives two major updates a year, in April and October. Release wave 2 is the October update, and this year it brings version 29. Smaller monthly updates then follow through the winter, each of which can include new features, regulatory changes and fixes.
What's different this time is how Microsoft tells you about it. From September 2026, Microsoft stopped publishing release plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Upcoming capabilities now appear on the AI at Work roadmap as soon as they're committed, rather than being grouped into a twice-yearly plan. For Business Central, Microsoft's "what's new" page for each version on Microsoft Learn is now the most useful single reference, and Microsoft notes that features on it are no longer linked to release plans.
Source: What's new in Business Central update 29.0, Microsoft Learn
When will my business get BC29?
New Business Central online customers get version 29 automatically. Existing customers receive an email notification when the update is available for their environments, and administrators can schedule it for a date that suits them within the update window. Since 2024, that window has been five months long, so there's no need to take a major update in the middle of a busy month-end.
If you created a preview sandbox in September to test BC29, Microsoft deletes these automatically around 30 days after general availability, so in early November 2026. Preview environments can't be moved to a production version.
For on-premises customers, Microsoft's Modern Lifecycle Policy lists version 29 as supported until 5 April 2028.
What's new in Business Central BC29?
Microsoft's list of changes for update 29.0 runs to more than 80 items. Many are for developers or for specific countries. The changes below are the ones most likely to matter to a UK business running Business Central online.
Agents: more useful, and easier to supervise
Business Central's AI agents were the headline of the April release. BC29 focuses on making them easier to live with day to day. A new review bar on documents and lists shows where an agent needs a person to step in, so tasks waiting for approval don't sit unnoticed. When an agent needs extra permissions to finish a task, it can now request them, and administrators can grant them without rebuilding the agent's setup. The agent interface also groups agent avatars and adds a dedicated action for starting new tasks.
The Payables Agent, which drafts purchase invoices from incoming documents, now uses line amounts and expected receipt dates to match invoices to purchase orders more accurately. It also aligns its drafts with your Receipt on Invoice settings.
For businesses connecting Business Central to other AI tools, the Business Central MCP Server gains tools to define, validate and run custom data queries. In practice, that means an AI application can query Business Central data even where no standard API exists for it. That's powerful, so it needs the same access controls you'd apply to any other integration.
Expenses: the Expense Agent grows up
The Expense Agent, which arrived in preview earlier in 2026, gains several features that make it more practical for businesses with travelling or field-based staff:
- An approval process, with AI-based policy checks that flag suspicious or non-compliant items across expense lines and whole reports
- Better duplicate detection, including checks against expenses that have already been posted
- Travel requisitions, so trips can be planned and approved in advance, including trips with several travellers
- Mileage rates that vary by date range and vehicle type, so rate changes and different vehicles are calculated correctly
- Interim approvers, so a report can be routed through a temporary reviewer before final approval
Financial reporting: fewer exports, better audit trails
Finance teams get some of the most useful changes in this release. Report packs let you group several financial reports, run them together and receive a single PDF, either immediately or on a schedule delivered to the report inbox or by email. For month-end board packs, that removes a lot of manual collation.
Report authors can now trace how G/L accounts are used across financial reports, spot accounts that haven't been categorised, and preview definitions before publishing them. Changes to financial report rows, columns and definitions are now always written to the change log, which helps with audit and internal control. New APIs on the report inbox also allow report outputs to be automated with Power Automate or MCP.
Document layouts: consistent branding without rework
BC29 introduces composable report layouts. You can define a report theme, plus reusable headers and footers, and apply them globally, per company, per report or per layout. For groups running several companies in Business Central, that makes consistent invoices and statements much easier to maintain. The Word add-in gains new design components to build these layouts, including conditional visibility, and administrators can now set a status on every type of layout to control which ones users can choose.
Manufacturing, warehousing and subcontracting
Manufacturers and distributors get a set of practical changes rather than a new module. Subcontracting is easier to set up through assisted setup, routing comments and attachments now carry through to subcontractor purchase orders, and basic warehouse configurations can use inventory put-aways and picks for subcontracting work. Direct transfer orders can now be posted from locations that require inventory picks or warehouse shipments.
Quality inspections involve less manual entry: finishing an inspection fills in passed and failed quantities, and posting errors link straight to the inspection that's blocking them. Planners can create released production orders directly from the Planning Worksheet and update capacity calendars more easily.
Shopify and ecommerce
The Shopify connector continues to mature. BC29 adds management of Shopify B2B companies, catalogues and pricing (depending on your Shopify plan), better handling of edited and exchanged orders and refunds, and more control over how sales documents are created from Shopify orders and returns. You can now include tariff (HS) codes and country of origin in product synchronisation, which is useful for UK businesses shipping overseas. The connector also moves to Shopify's July 2026 API with secure access tokens and clearer synchronisation diagnostics.
Electronic documents
Businesses can now exchange orders and payment documents through the E-Documents framework using the Peppol BIS 3 standard. If your customers or suppliers already trade through Peppol, this reduces the need for third-party EDI tools.
Sustainability reporting
Carbon tracking extends further into everyday transactions. Business Central can now record emissions against fixed assets, item journals and item reclassification journals, calculate emissions in purchase documents using formulas, and show an estimated carbon footprint on service invoices. A new "Specific" calculation method gives more precise figures for serial and lot-tracked items, and sustainability ledger entries can now be reversed directly. These changes matter most for businesses that have to supply emissions data to larger customers.
Everyday usability and governance
Smaller changes will be noticed by most users. Lookups now show recently used records, Tell Me (Alt+Q) remembers recent searches, and images can be previewed without leaving Business Central. Users can bookmark list views and analysis tabs to their Role Centre, and system audit fields such as "created by" can be used in analysis mode.
For IT and compliance teams, Open in Excel actions are now logged to telemetry, so data exports can be audited. Microsoft has also changed how table extension data is stored, which should improve performance for environments with many extensions.
For developers and partners
Much of BC29 is aimed at AL developers, including AI agents that can debug recorded sessions and profile slow ones, command-line test runs for CI/CD pipelines, and indexes that span base table and extension fields. You won't see these directly, but they should make extensions faster to build and test. If you run custom extensions or ISV apps, confirm with your partner or supplier that they've been tested on version 29.
BC29 at a glance
| Area | What changes in BC29 | Most relevant to |
|---|---|---|
| Agents | Review bar for agent tasks, permission requests, better purchase order matching in the Payables Agent | Finance teams piloting agents |
| Expense Agent | Approvals with AI policy checks, duplicate detection, travel requisitions, mileage rates by date and vehicle | Businesses with travelling or field staff |
| Financial reporting | Report packs in a single PDF, scheduled delivery, G/L account tracing, automatic change logging | Finance directors and month-end |
| Document layouts | Report themes and shared headers and footers, set globally or by company, report or layout | Multi-company groups |
| Manufacturing and warehousing | Subcontracting with basic warehousing, direct transfers from warehouse locations, faster quality inspections | Manufacturers and distributors |
| Shopify | B2B companies, catalogues and pricing; order edits, exchanges and refunds; HS codes and country of origin | Ecommerce sellers |
| E-documents | Peppol BIS 3 orders and payments through E-Documents | Businesses trading through Peppol |
| Sustainability | Carbon tracking for fixed assets, item journals and service invoices; formula-based purchase emissions | Businesses reporting emissions to customers |
| Usability and governance | Recently used records in lookups, recent searches, image preview, Open in Excel telemetry | All users, IT and compliance |
What's less relevant for UK businesses?
A sizeable part of the release is country-specific. Features for Czechia, the migration of Italian subcontracting data and several withholding tax and excise duty changes are aimed at markets where those regimes apply. They won't affect a typical UK deployment, but it's worth checking with your partner if you trade or have subsidiaries in those countries.
How should UK businesses prepare for BC29?
A major update shouldn't be treated as routine IT maintenance. Before scheduling it, we recommend:
- Updating a sandbox copy of your environment to version 29 and testing your main processes, reports and integrations with your extensions installed
- Scheduling the production update for a quiet period, away from month-end and year-end
- Reviewing your document layouts before moving to themes and shared headers, so you only rebuild what needs rebuilding
- Choosing which agents to pilot, setting their permissions deliberately, and confirming how their usage is licensed in your tenant
- Checking the new settings on the Shopify Shop Card if you use the Shopify connector
- Setting up a filtered view of the AI at Work roadmap for Business Central, with an RSS feed, and agreeing a monthly or quarterly review now that there's no release plan
You don't need to adopt every new feature. The aim is to take the update safely and switch on the changes that remove real work for your team.
Talk to Advantage About Your Business Central Update
Advantage is a Microsoft Solutions Partner supporting SMEs across the UK with Dynamics 365 Business Central. We work with businesses in manufacturing, professional services, distribution and not-for-profit to plan updates, test extensions and make practical use of new features. If you'd like help preparing for BC29, or deciding which agents are worth piloting, we're happy to talk it through.
Call us on 020 3004 4600, email hello@advantage.co.uk, or request a conversation with our team.
Related Resources
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Dynamics 365 2026 release wave 2: what's changed for Sales, Customer Service and Field Service
The new Microsoft Copilot: what Home, Code and Autopilot mean for UK SMEs
What is Microsoft 365 E7? What UK Businesses Need to Know
Frequently asked questions about Business Central 2026 release wave 2
Common questions about what's in Business Central BC29, when it's available and how UK businesses should prepare for the update.
What is Business Central 2026 release wave 2?
Business Central 2026 release wave 2 is Microsoft's October 2026 major update to Dynamics 365 Business Central, delivered as version 29 (BC29). It adds improvements to AI agents, the Expense Agent, financial reporting, document layouts, manufacturing, Shopify integration and sustainability reporting, with further features arriving through monthly updates.
When was Business Central BC29 released?
Business Central version 29 became generally available for Business Central online at the start of October 2026, following a public preview that opened in September. New customers receive it automatically, and existing customers can schedule the update within a five-month window.
Is there a release plan for Business Central 2026 release wave 2?
No. Microsoft stopped publishing release plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform from September 2026. New capabilities now appear on the AI at Work roadmap, and Microsoft Learn's what's new page for each Business Central version lists the features it includes.
What are the main new features in Business Central BC29?
The main changes are easier supervision of AI agents, better purchase order matching in the Payables Agent, approvals and travel requisitions in the Expense Agent, report packs and G/L account tracing in financial reporting, report themes and shared headers for document layouts, subcontracting and warehouse improvements, and Shopify B2B features.
Do I have to update to BC29 straight away?
No. Administrators can schedule the major update for any date within the update window, which has been five months since 2024. We recommend testing in a sandbox first and scheduling the production update away from month-end.
What does BC29 add to the Expense Agent?
BC29 adds an approval process with AI-based policy checks, improved duplicate detection including against posted expenses, travel requisitions with approvals, mileage rates by date range and vehicle type, and interim approvers.
How does BC29 change financial reporting in Business Central?
You can group several financial reports into a report pack and receive them as a single PDF, immediately or on a schedule. Report authors can trace G/L account usage and find uncategorised accounts, and changes to financial report definitions are now always logged.
Is Business Central version 29 available on-premises?
Microsoft releases on-premises versions separately from the online update. Under Microsoft's Modern Lifecycle Policy, Business Central on-premises version 29 is supported until 5 April 2028. Check with your partner for the current on-premises release status.
