Business Central 2026 Wave 1- What this will mean for you

Business Central Wave 1 2026

Business Central receives two major platforms updates each year, known as Wave 1 and Wave 2. Wave 1 will typically run from April to September, with new features gradually released during this period. The 2026 Wave 1 release starts from the 1st of April 2026.

Although Microsoft announces updates across the wider Power Platform at the same time such as Power Apps, Power Automate and Copilot studio. Wave 1 2026 will introduce improvements across finance, operations, supply chain management, and CRM-related processes, with updates designed to reduce manual work. Finance and operations will also see great benefit in areas such as approvals, cost adjustments and automation.

For SMEs ready to scale and consider automation, Wave 1 2026 combines core Business Central functionality with practical AI driven improvements, helping teams run more efficiently and adapt quickly as the business grows.

Common Challenges

Many SMEs are facing late payment, cash flow pressure, slow invoice approvals, and the challenge of working without real time financial data, and although 60% of SMEs are researching AI only 7% are actually scaling it!

The Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 wave 1 release brings new updates across Copilot, AI agents, financial management, reporting and supply chain to directly support the challenges SMEs are facing.

For finance and operations teams, this means reducing manual finance tasks, gaining clearer visibility, and working more efficiently without adding extra admin

Why this release matters for your business

Up to 60% of SMEs struggle with cash flow due to late payments, rising operations costs and manual admin. Many still rely on outdated spreadsheets and lack real-time financial visibility. SMEs also have limited access to flexible financial tools that support modern reporting and forecasting.

Manufactures and distributors often rely on manual processes and disconnected systems. Without real-time data, teams struggle to track stock accurately, leading to overstocking, shortages, or supplier delays

Many SMEs still rely on spreadsheets, which become slow and error prone as the business scales. Operational inefficiencies accumulate over time and directly affect productivity and customer delivery.

AI- Love it or hate it, it has its place

AI adoption is rising 35% of UK SMEs actively use AI in early 2026, up from 25% in 2024, but a third of SMEs still have no plans to adopt it due to lack of expertise, cost concerns, and fear of disruption.

Those who do embrace automation are already reporting higher productivity, with the government noting a 56% improvement for AI-enabled businesses. This is our first-hand experience with some of our customers

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How Business Central Wave 1, 2026 benefits SMEs

The 2026 Wave 1 release is built around the real problems SMEs are facing everyday: rising finance workloads, manual processes, slow approvals, and the difficulty of getting clear, real-time information.

For many growing businesses, especially in manufacturing and distribution, these issues start to become harder to manage as the team starts to scale.

Business Central supporting growth

Microsoft has made AI more practical in this newest release. Instead of Copilot or AI agents feeling like separate tools, they’re now built directly into the everyday tasks finance operations teams already do. This means that automation and insights appear exactly when you need them

The focus of Wave 1 2026 is to support SMEs to move away from spreadsheets and manual work. It gives finance and operations teams better visibility and more efficient processes. Allowing business to scale without adding unnecessary admin.

Ai, CoPilot and AI Agents in Wave 1 2026

AI continues to be a major for Business Central, and the 2026 Wave 1 release makes Copilot and AI agents far more practical for everyday finance and operations work. Instead of being separate tools, AI is now built directly into the areas where SMEs need the most support payables, reporting, stock, task management and day to day decision making.

Across the finance department, the Payables Agent can now pick up supplier invoices from shared mailboxes and mark them as processed by Payables Agent, making it easier for teams to see what has already been handled. You can also review content generated by agents directly on the page, stop active tasks if needed.

Operations roles will also benefit from this update too. As users can now get item insights with advanced KPI’s giving clearer visibility of stock and performance without manual reporting. A new dedicated task pane brings together tasks from every AI agent you use, so accountants, sales and managers are able to see suggestions.

These improvements make the use of AI more useful for SMEs. Whether it’s reducing manual invoice handling, surfacing real-time insights or helping teams manage tasks more efficiently, the 2026 Wave 1 update makes AI a genuine part of day-to-day finance and operations.

Finance updates in Wave 1 2026

The 2026 Wave 1 release brings several practical updates that make day to day finance work smoother, faster and far less manual. These improvements focus on accuracy, approvals, and giving finance teams better control in high-volume environments especially where teams are trying to reduce admin and speed up month-end. 

Stronger approval workflows for finance data 

Approval workflows have now been extended to more finance critical journals, giving business tighter control and clearer audit trails. You can now send batches for approval across: 

• Item journals 

• Physical inventory Journals 

• Output Journals 

• Consumption Journals 

Each journal will now show its workflow status directly on the page, and users can approve, reject, delegate, or comment without workarounds. This is especially helpful for businesses that need better governance without adding extra admin steps. 

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Improved data consistency across planning and production 

The description 2 field is now avaliable for personalisation on more pages and is fully supported during planning, production order creation, and related processes. This gives teams more flexibility when tracking and describing items, especially useful for manufacturers working with complex BOMs or item variants. 

Better control over payables and supplier set-up 

You can now create purchase quotes for contacts that aren’t linked to a vendor yet. Instead of setting up a full vendor record first, you select a contact, choose a template, and Business Central builds the vendor automatically when the quote is released or converted. This speeds up purchasing for SMEs that deal with new or one-off suppliers. 

Cleaner handling of drop shipments 

You can now reverse posted drop shipments when both the sales shipment and the related purchase receipt haven’t been invoiced. Previously, this was locked. Now, Business Central can: 

• Revert the purchase receipt 

• Create correction entries 

• Reapply purchase and sales entries 

This gives finance and operations team more flexibility when fixing errors a common issue for fast-moving manufacturing and distribution businesses 

Why these updates will benefit Business Central users 

These changes support SMEs dealing with: 

• High transaction volumes 

• Overloaded finance teams 

• Slow or manual approval chains 

• Disconnected data 

• Operational bottlenecks between finance and purchasing 

Practical Outcomes for your business 

• Reduce manual work 

• Tighten financial controls, and 

• Make everyday tasks quicker and easier. 

Meet increasing workloads without increasing admin overheads 

SMEs continue to face rising finance workloads, manual processes and increasing pressure to scale without adding more admin. The Business Central 2026 Wave 1 release directly supports these challenges by introducing practical AI, better visibility and improvements across payables, reporting, operations and supply chain management. 

For manufactures and distributors, the updates across purchasing, approvals, planning and item insights make every day work faster, clearer and easier to manage especially for teams trying to move away from spreadsheets and manual work. 

If you’re exploring Business Central for the first time or planning your next move, Qi can help you understand what these changes mean for your business. We specialise in supporting SMEs with migrations, process reviews, training and ongoing support to make sure you get the full value from Business Central. 

Whether you are already using Business Central, or are thinking of modernising and moving to it, If you would like to talk through the update or see what it could look like for your team, we’re always here to help.

 

Thought for the day

This article aims to provide the “edited highlights” of Business Central Wave 1- This Microsoft Learn article will also be useful.