Microsoft Wave Release - what's new in Version 29

The Roadmap has changed… 

Microsoft will now be moving Business Central updates to the AI at Work roadmap, effective from September 2026. Always this takes away our two-yearly countdown to see what exciting changes and enhances Microsoft has in store for us, the new roadmap will mean that both customers and partners can benefit from seeing upcoming changes in one continuously updated place – allowing more efficient time to plan testing, training and communications. 

AI

Is there any surprise that AI is still at the forefront of the conversation, of course not, so it’s no wonder Microsoft have heavily invested in the following updates as part of this wave release.

Unified Copilot chat

The updated Microsoft Copilot chat experience brings a modern and user-friendly interface that works efficiently with the broader Microsoft ecosystem. Users can combine business data with web results and general knowledge, and review answers before acting. Business Central users can benefit from finding information and understanding Business Central processes through a familiar conversational experience, reducing time spent searching through pages and reports. 

Improved purchase-order matching in Payables Agent

Users can now match purchase-order lines using value, as well as quantity and description. Finance and purchasing teams can achieve more accurate first-pass invoice matching where similar purchase-order lines are difficult to distinguish. The benefit? Reducing exceptions and manual review while keeping users in control. 

Expense Agent approval and policy review

Submitting an expense report for approval just got easier. With the new approval and policy review in the expense agent, users can submit an expense report for approval, validate he report against natural-language policies, flag suspicious or noncompliant items, and keep the approver responsible for the final decision. Approvers can focus quickly on unusual or noncompliant expenses instead of manually checking every line, helping organisations apply travel and expense policies more consistently without removing human judgement.

Finance

It wouldn’t be a Business Central Release Wave without highlighting the key updates and features in Finance.

Calculate withholding tax for vendors

Finance teams operating in relevant countries in the EU can calculate and post vendor withholding tax within standard Business Central. The benefits? Reducing spreadsheets, manual adjustments and risk of inconsistent tax treatment. 
*Withholding tax is an amount deducted from a payment to a vendor and paid to the tax authority. In the UK, we use CIS and this is additional option now.

Accelerated depreciation for fixed assets

Accelerated depreciation helps organisations reflect faster asset consumption – without relying on manual calculations ad external tools.

Asset-heavy organisations can apply the required depreciation method within their normal fixed-asset process, improving compliance and giving finance teams clearer visibility of depreciation values and variances.

*What is accelerated depreciation, you ask… well… look at a new car, it will have a lifespan 10 years, the greatest deprecation is in the first year when you drive of the forecourt. It loses much less value in the 2nd and 3rd years.

Multiple excise duties per item

Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers can now apply several duties to the same item without duplicating item records or manual calculations, improving both tax accuracy and product costing. Take an item that is liable for both plastic and sugar tax, users can assign multiple excise duty configurations to the same inventory item… reducing the need for manual workarounds, customisations, or separate item records to represent different tax obligations.  

Quality

Reduce manual work in quality tests and inspections

Companies wanting to provide stronger quality control and traceability for manufacturing, subcontracting, distribution, and regulated inventory processes, will benefit highly, as quality inspectors and managers can complete routine inspections with fewer manual steps and interruptions. Quality teams can complete inspections faster, reduce manual errors, control inspected stock more effectively and resolve blocked transactions directly from the responsible inspection.

Reusable headers and footers

One that your marketing team will thank you for, report owners can maintain consistent branding across customer and supplier documents without updating every layout separately… saving administration time and reducing inconsistent outputs. 

Reporting

Financial report packs

Finance teams looking to reduce manual collation and make scheduled distribution faster and more reliable will benefit from this updated feature. Teams will be able to produce a complete management or month-end pack as one ordered PDF.

System audit fields in analysis and profiles

This may seem familiar, with an added view on items, customers and vendor lists towards the end of Version 28, but updates to this feature will mean finance, operational, and audit teams can now investigate who created or changed records directly within Business Central – improving traceability without the need of a separate export or bespoke report.

Subcontracting

Carry instructions into purchase orders

A feature for production and purchasing teams… individuals can send subcontractors the correct comments and attachments directly from routing, reducing rekeying, any missed instructions, and costly outside-processing errors.

Warehouse put-aways and picks

Warehouse teams will benefit from managing subcontracted components and returned work through familiar inventory activities, improving control and traceability without the need to create a separate warehouse process. All thanks to the use inventory put-aways for subcontracting receipts and working with warehouse-enabled locations.

Sustainability

Alongside AI, sustainability remains a topic of key importance.

Broader carbon-footprint tracking

Organisations, in particular, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and the heritage space can capture emissions within purchasing, inventory and fixed-asset activity, making sustainability reporting less dependent on offline records.

Feature Management

Changes becoming standard in Version 29

Prepare for changes that will become unavoidable in Version 29, allowing time to test extensions, permissions and working practices before upgrades to avoid disruption. 

*It's worth noting that these are only a few updates and changes in the latest wave release, and preview details can sometimes change.

If you’d like to learn more about the latest wave release and how it may affect your system, reach out to Dynavics today!