What’s New in Business Central 2026 Wave 1: Key Highlights from the Spring Release

Microsoft’s 2026 Wave 1 release for Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a strong mix of AI innovation, operational improvements, and expanded financial capabilities. To help you and other Business Central users get an early look, our team recently hosted a live demo exploring the most impactful updates in this release.

If you’d like to see these features in action, watch this video.  

A smarter, more connected Business Central.

This release continues Microsoft’s push toward a more intelligent and connected ERP experience. From deeper Shopify integration to expanded AI capabilities and improved reporting, the focus is clear: helping teams get more value from their existing Business Central environment.

Here are some of the standout enhancements from the Spring 2026 release.

Enhanced Shopify integration.

If you’re running eCommerce alongside Business Central, the improved Shopify connector delivers greater flexibility and control. Key updates include expanded currency handling and the ability to map item attributes as product options more effectively.

These updates will make it easier for you to manage product data across systems and streamline the customer's buying experience without adding manual overhead.

AI agents with greater control.

AI continues to evolve within Business Central, and this release introduces the ability to design and manage AI agents directly within the platform.

Users now have more control over how AI generated outputs behave, making it easier to tailor automation to specific business needs. This shift makes AI more practical and configurable for your everyday use.

Reporting and analytics improvements.

Better insights drive better decisions, and this release strengthens your reporting capabilities in several ways.

With enhanced Power BI integration and improvements to financial reporting functionality, your team can access more meaningful data faster. Whether it is operational dashboards or financial analysis, reporting is becoming more accessible and actionable across the organization.

Administration tools that improve visibility.

System administration also sees meaningful upgrades in this release. Updates like the Word report add-in, improved report lifecycle management, and clearer database storage visibility give your team more transparency and control.

These changes can help reduce friction for administrators while making it easier to manage reporting assets and system performance.

Manufacturing and inventory enhancements.

For companies in manufacturing and distribution, this release offers several practical improvements.

Additional approval workflows, better subcontractor handling, and updates through the Quality Control extension will help you maintain tighter operational control. These enhancements support more consistent processes and improved product quality across the supply chain.

Expanded finance capabilities.

Your finance team will benefit from several new and improved features, including:

• Fixed Asset Investment enhancements  

• Support for excise taxes and withholding taxes  

• Self-billed invoice functionality.  

These updates expand Business Central’s ability to handle more complex financial scenarios while improving accuracy and compliance.

Order and invoice matching improvements.

Efficiency gains continue with enhancements to order and invoice matching. Updates to drop shipping workflows and improved receipt to invoice filtering will also help reduce your manual reconciliation work.

The result is a smoother, more accurate process for managing transactions from order through to payment.

New expense management module.

A notable addition in this release is the new Expense Management module. This provides built-in functionality to manage your employee expense claims directly within Business Central.

By bringing expense management into the core system, your organization can reduce reliance on external tools and gain better visibility into spending.

Bringing it all together.

Business Central 2026 Wave 1 reflects continued investment in usability, intelligence, and end-to-end business management. Whether it is AI driven workflows, deeper integrations, or stronger financial tools, these updates are designed to help you get more value from your Business Central system.

We’re excited about these new enhancements and what they mean for our customers. If you haven’t already, be sure to watch the full walkthrough video to see these features in action.

If you have questions about how these updates apply to your environment or need support with your Business Central system, our team is here to help.