Category: Business CentralRead time: 5 MinsUpdated on: 25 Apr 2025

What's new in Business Central

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Business Central is an intelligent business application that automates your business processes. As a highly scalable solution, it helps your company to manage finance, sales, supply chain, manufacturing & more. Additionally, you can add functionalities relevant to your industry by choosing apps from industry-leading ISVs. Our Business Central Consultants can help you understand and use the latest features of Business Central. For more assistance, please reach out to us to help you unlock the complete potential of Business Central.

 

Microsoft has announced Business Central version 26.0 along with wide range of new features and improvements. By integrating AI-driven agents with Business Central, Microsoft has taken AI innovation to the next level with this release. Functionalities specific to manufacturing, sustainability management, and e-document capabilities are also improved. Integration with Shopify and Dynamics 365 Field Service is also optimized. These features will help you collaborate and grow in a more digital world. Adding updates from the previous release, Microsoft remained focused on integrating Copilot’s capabilities into Business Central.

 

The release planned for April 2025 through September 2025 contains the following new feature updates for Business Central.

Infographic: 25 exciting new features in Business Central 2024 release wave 1

Application

  • Power BI apps to analyze fixed asset and subscription billing
    • New Power BI apps in finance, sales, inventory, purchase, projects, and manufacturing helping CFOs & controllers to analyze more data.
  • Foreign currency adjustments
    • While adjusting currency exchange rates for bank accounts, you can choose to post these adjustments to realized or unrealized gain/loss accounts.
  • Improved trouble shooting for cost adjustments
    • The improvements to cost adjustment in Business Central leads to more accurate inventory valuation, reduced financial discrepancies, improved decision-making, and increased operational efficiency.
  • Item availability in Field service work orders
    • Optimize work order scheduling, avoid unnecessary (travel) costs, and optimize service and purchasing operations.

Copilot and AI

  • Autofill fields with Copilot
    • Copilot now suggests appropriate field values so that you can auto-apply them instead of typing.
  • Automate payables processes with the Payables Agent
    • Payables Agent automates AP workflows by extracting vendor invoices from emails/SharePoint and creating draft purchase invoices in BC using purchase history and accounting policies.
  • Copilot guides users to understand functionality of add-on apps
    • Copilot now provides contextual guidance for add-on apps, functioning as an in-house expert rather than just a help resource.
  • Enhance purchase order line matching with Copilot
    • Copilot enhances purchase order accuracy by intelligently matching vendor invoices to POs, reducing manual search and data entry work.
  • Summarize with Copilot
    • Copilot quickly summarizes complex records into key insights, helping users understand data states and plan actions faster.
  • Use Sales Order Agent to automate sales order-taking
    • Sales Order Agent automates order processing to improve efficiency & helps manage heavy workloads, with studies showing 41% of leaders plan to redefine processes with such AI agents.

Country and regional

  • Define allowed languages per environment
    • Administrators can now define permitted UI languages per environment. Only installed language apps appear as options in user settings, which simplifies multilingual deployments.
  • Install UK localization as an extension to the base app
    • Country-base app delocalization enables faster multi-country implementations, easier ISV solution integration & simplified PTE development
  • Submit IRS 1099 forms electronically to IRIS in the US localization
    • Direct IRS 1099 electronic filing via IRIS platform helps in API integration which eliminates manual submissions. It also helps in real-time submission tracking and complies with IRS standards.
  • Use Peppol PINT A-NZ format for e-documents in AU and NZ
    • Australia and New Zealand users can now use e-invoicing. This feature introduces e-documents for invoices, significantly enhancing business efficiency and reducing operational costs.

Development

  • Move Tables and Fields with Data Across Extensions
    • Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and developers can refactor their solutions. They can move tables and fields between different extensions. This helps in breaking down monolithic apps into manageable extensions.
  • Troubleshoot Clients, Apps, and Add-ins with Telemetry
    • Improved telemetry tools will help find and fix problems in Business Central, custom apps, and add-ins. Admins can solve issues faster with better information about errors and performance.
  • Mock Outbound Http Client Web Service Calls During Testing
    • For better testing, Developers can create special tools called "Handlers" to make fake responses for specific web service calls. This helps to test how their code interacts with other systems without systems.
  • View Build Metadata in Extension Management Page
    • The extension management page shows build metadata for installed extensions, helping admins with troubleshooting and version control.
  • Customize and Modify User Profiles Without Duplicating Code
    • Customize and modify user profiles without code duplication. Instead of code duplication, developers tailor UX by role.
  • Define Profile Extension Objects
    • Developers will be able to define profile extension objects. This allows for a more structured approach to extend and customize user profiles.
  • Run Background Profiling to Pinpoint and Address Performance Issues
    • Developers can identify and resolve performance issues using rule-based scheduling mode for performance profiling. This helps reduce troubleshooting time and optimizes performance.

E-commerce

  • Activate Sales Channels in Shopify Connector
    • Activate specific sales channels for better sync control. This helps to get a streamlined process for managing and syncing data across different Shopify sales channels (e.g., online store, buy buttons, social media shops)
  • Import and Export More Data Using Shopify metafield
    • Import and export custom Shopify data through metafield for better integration. This will enable a tailored e-commerce experience by allowing businesses to synchronize specific information, between the two systems.
  • Delete Incorrect E-documents and Avoid Duplicates
    • Maintain data accuracy and avoid duplicates by deleting incorrect e-documents. This is crucial for reconciliation and ensuring the integrity of sales and financial records.
  • Use E-documents to Fix Unposted Purchase Credit Memos
    • Users can update and resend unposted purchase credit memos as E-documents. This helps streamline returns handling and in maintaining accurate records with vendors.

E-Documents

  • Automation & Efficiency
    • Auto-embed PEPPOL attachments helps to streamline exchange of information with embedded files.
    • Convert existing sales invoices to e-docs, facilitating digital invoicing processes.
    • Handle e-documents with a two-step process to review or modify data before finalizing for better accuracy & control.
  • Improved Error Handling & Control
    • Remove errors and prevent duplicates in e-documents to maintain accurate & error-free records.
    • Preview incoming e-invoices prior to processing, allowing for review and validation.
    • The e-document framework allows correction and resending of unposted purchase documents electronically.
  • Expanded Formats & Integrations
    • Business Central supports the export of reminders and finance charge memos in the PEPPOL format
    • With multi-attachment support, Business central can process incoming documents with multiple files efficiently.
    • New extensibility interface helps to customize and integrate e-document workflows seamlessly.

Financial Management

  • Analyze subscription billing data with Power BI reports
    • Enhances the reporting capabilities for subscription-based businesses, with deeper insights for revenue trends & customer behavior.
  • Check total purchase amounts on documents
    • Allows users to review and verify total purchase amounts directly on purchase orders or invoices, improving visibility.
  • Require Intrastat classifications on documents
    • Enforce mandatory Intrastat classificationson relevant EU trade documents to ensure compliance with statistical reporting requirements.

Governance and administration

  • Add support for MultiSubnetFailover
    • Business Central can handle database connections in multi-subnet environments, improving high availability and failover capabilities.
  • Automate environment management with Power Platform connector
    • Automate environment management tasks with Power Platform connector, streamlining administrative processes and enabling more efficient deployments.
  • Link to Power Platform to use Copilot Studio messages
    • Use Copilot studio messages to facilitate automated communication and workflows through Power Platform integration.
  • Manage environment updates flexibly
    • Manage environment updates with more granular control over update schedules and deployment options, providing admins with greater flexibility.
  • Support IPv6 for enhanced security and scalability
    • Business Central supports IPv6, enhancing security and scalability for network communications.
  • Update sandbox environments to preview versions
    • Admins can update sandbox environments to preview versions, allowing for early testing and validation of new features and updates.

Reporting and data analysis

  • Advanced Report Customization
    • Dynamically embed report/request data in Word templates for smarter document generation.
    • Pull data from linked tables directly in analyses without complex workarounds.
    • Advanced PDF post-processing capabilities including merge, split, watermark, or other modifications to generated PDF reports.
  • Financial Reporting Upgrades
    • Enhanced financial reporting capabilities includes improvements to existing reports, new reporting options, or more flexible financial analysis tools.
    • New financial reporting templates for users to generate standardized and professional-looking financial reports.
  • Manufacturing Analytics & Quality control
    • New or enhanced reports and dashboards that provide deeper insights into manufacturing processes, production efficiency, and inventory management.
    • Admin layout validation helps to proactively check report designs for errors before deployment.

Supply chain management

  • Manufacturing Efficiency & Accuracy
    • Achieve accurate reporting by improving the precision of cost calculations within manufacturing processes.
    • Business Central allows concurrent inventory postings, improving efficiency and reducing bottlenecks in high-volume environments.
    • Cancel or postpone orders (even after consumption), reopen finished orders, and reschedule order within safety lead times, offering more flexibility.
    • Warehouse integration connects production output with put-aways, and omits warehouse picks using manual flushing methods, streamlining material consumption processes.
    • Manage document attachments directly within manufacturing workflows, improving information management.
  • Subscription Billing & Service Management
    • Align subscription billing with standard Business Central terminology and workflows for a unified user experience.
    • Manual contract lines help to create and edit subscription agreements with granular control.
    • Business Central offers consolidated invoicing that combine multiple service shipments into a single invoice.
    • Demo data tool helps to facilitate the setup and testing of subscription billing functionalities.
  • Usability & Reporting
    • Enhanced Columns enables to add more data fields to pages for in-depth supply chain insights.
    • Modify output, consumption, and item journals directly from Excel.
    • Customer document layouts will be enhanced for service management, improving the presentation of service-related information.
  • Quality Control & Compliance
    • Users can block specific items or variants from being included in production output, providing greater control over production processes.
    • Prevent project journal errors by avoiding document number mismatches during posting.

Sustainability Management

  • Capture sustainability data with general journals
    • Input sustainability-related data directly through general journals for flexible and detailed data capture.
  • Sustainability Scope 3 value chain for assembly and transfers
    • Business Central supports Scope 3 emissions tracking for assembly and transfer processes, expanding the scope of sustainability reporting.
  • Carbon equivalent data for sales based on Scope 3 automation
    • Carbon equivalent data will be generated for sales transactions based on automated Scope 3 calculations, providing insights into the environmental impact of sales.
  • Start value chain in purchase process for Scope 3 automation
    • The purchase process will be integrated with Scope 3 emissions tracking, allowing for the capture of upstream emissions data.
  • Taxonomy elements for ESRS and other standards
    • Taxonomy elements will be enabled to support compliance with ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) and other sustainability reporting standards.
  • ESG Reporting
    • ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting integrated directly within Business Central, streamlining the reporting process.
  • Specify default sustainability values for various entities
    • Users can define default sustainability values for various entities, simplifying data entry and ensuring consistency.
  • Out of Scope emission category
    • A new "Out of Scope" emission category helps for more accurate and granular emissions tracking.
  • Water and waste management
    • Water and waste management functionalities with sustainability features, offers an holistic approach to environmental reporting.

User experiences

  • Customizable FactBox
    • Users can now resize the FactBox pane width for a more personalized workspace layout.
  • Screen Space Optimization
    • The web client utilizes screen space more efficiently through improved layouts, element sizing and other visual aspects.
  • Preview PDF attachments directly in web client
    • PDF attachments can be previewed directly in the web client without the need to download files first.

Visit What's New in Business Central 2025 Release Wave 1 for more details. You will find information on the upcoming features and their planned release date.

Business Central 2025 release wave 1 represents a significant step forward in functionality, intelligence, and global reach. Microsoft is making Business Central a smart solution by leveraging AI, improving integration, and focusing on user and developer experiences. With the recent update, small and medium-sized businesses cannot afford to miss Business Central in this digital age.