What's New in Business Central 2026 Release Wave 2 (V29): Unified Copilot, Smarter Agents, Faster Tables

Updated 2 October 2026: Business Central 29 became generally available on 1 October 2026. This post was written during the preview; we’ve corrected it against Microsoft’s final 29.0 release notes, including which features are generally available and which are still in preview. For the upgrade side — what breaks, the update window that ends in February 2027, and what the agents cost — read Business Central 29 is live: the upgrade guide.

Microsoft shipped the public preview of Business Central 2026 Release Wave 2 — version 29 — in the first week of September, and general availability followed on 1 October 2026. Before we get to the features, one structural thing has to be said: there is no “Wave 2” release plan document this time. Microsoft stopped publishing release plans in September and now announces new capabilities on the continuously updated AI at Work roadmap. Business Central itself still ships a major version every April and October — only the way features are announced changed. If that’s news to you, start with how to track Business Central updates now — then come back here.

That context matters, because V29 is a genuinely strong release that arrived quietly. Microsoft’s own Update 29.0 list counts 80 new and updated features — 68 generally available and 12 in public preview. The headline isn’t a single flashy module — it’s a release that makes the AI agents more trustworthy, and quietly rewires the platform underneath so that every environment gets faster.

Here’s what actually matters.

The Headline: Three Big Moves

Across the ~80 features, three themes dominate:

1. The Copilot experience unifies. Business Central’s chat stops being a BC-specific box and becomes the same Microsoft Copilot surface the rest of your org already uses (in preview).
2. Agents get sharper. Payables Agent learns to match on money and dates, not just words. MCP Server learns to run queries, not just read pages.
3. The data model gets a silent speed upgrade. Table extensions are rewritten so extension fields live in the base table — a platform-wide performance gain you don’t have to configure.

Let me walk through each.

Unified Copilot Chat Experience

Until version 28, Business Central had its own Chat with Copilot pane. In V29 it’s replaced by the Microsoft Copilot chat experience — the same surface and interaction pattern as the rest of the Microsoft Copilot ecosystem. Microsoft labels it a production-ready preview, and there’s no switching back to the old chat.

What it does and doesn’t do:

• It answers questions about your Business Central data — customers, items, orders, financials, whatever the user’s permissions allow — and links you straight to the page.
• It’s read-only. It finds and shows data; it doesn’t change records.
• It can’t call Business Central agents. The Sales Order Agent, Payables Agent and agents built on the Business Central agent framework are still used from their own experiences inside Business Central.
• It needs switching on. The Chat capability must be active in Copilot & agent capabilities, and users need permission. Reaching into emails, meetings and files requires a Microsoft Copilot licence.

For end users this removes a real friction point: one familiar Copilot pane instead of a Business Central-specific one.

There’s also a review bar — generally available in V29 — that surfaces documents and lists where an agent needs human input before it proceeds, directly in the lists where your people already work, rather than hiding the queue away. Alongside it, a single task pane collects tasks from all agents, and agent-generated content can be reviewed directly on the page. If you’ve ever had an agent stall silently on a draft, this is the fix.

Payables Agent: Smarter Purchase Order Matching

The Payables Agent — already generally available from earlier waves — gets a matching upgrade that addresses the single most common complaint partners hear: the agent matched the wrong PO line.

Until now, PO matching leaned on description and quantity. That works for simple cases and fails for exactly the cases that matter:

• Service lines where quantity is “1” and the description is generic — there’s nothing meaningful to match on
• Multiple similar PO lines — same item, different dates, different amounts

V29 enriches the PO Lines list page the agent uses with two fields:

• Line Amount — the agent now matches on value, not just text and quantity. This is the discriminator that finally works for service lines.
• Expected Receipt Date — the agent factors in timing when several lines could match, so it picks the line that aligns with when the goods were actually expected.

The second change is subtler but arguably more important: the agent now respects the “Never block draft finalization” option of the Receipt on Invoice setting. Previously, the agent could block draft finalization because a matched line wasn’t marked as received — even though “is it received” is a posting-time control, not a draft-time control. With that option set, the agent leaves receipt status to the posting logic, where it belongs. The Receipt on Invoice setting itself now also exists on the vendor and on each PO line, inherited vendor → order → line.

Draft warnings also got smarter — they now surface amount discrepancies, not just quantity, and remain informational rather than blocking.

Why this matters: if you’ve been running Payables Agent and manually triaging drafts that “looked wrong,” a meaningful chunk of that manual triage just went away.

MCP Server: Run Custom Data Queries

This is the most technically significant agent feature in V29, and it’s easy to under-read. Let me be precise about what changed.

The Business Central MCP Server (Model Context Protocol) already let AI tools read and act on exposed API pages. The limitation: if the data your AI tool needed wasn’t exposed through an existing API page, you had to write a new AL API page first. That’s a developer, a deployment, and days of lead time — for what is often just “run this query.”

V29 adds new MCP tools to define, validate, and run custom data queries. Your MCP-connected application can now query data for which no existing API exists. For anyone building AI tooling on top of BC — Copilot Studio agents, custom assistants, internal automation — this closes a real gap.

The pattern is familiar if you’ve used any query tool: define the query, validate it before you run it, then execute it. Validation-before-execution is the safety property that matters — it means an agent can construct a query, check it’s well-formed and scoped correctly, and only then run it, rather than firing a malformed query at production data.

This is a genuinely new capability, not a UX polish. We covered the MCP server’s fundamentals in BC MCP server and AI integrations — V29 builds directly on that foundation.

Expense Agent: The Module Matures (Still in Preview)

The Expense Management module that debuted in V28 gets a meaningful maturity pass — but note the label: every Expense Agent item in 29.0 is public preview, and Microsoft still lists the Expense Agent itself as preview. The highlights:

• Mileage rates by effective date range and vehicle type — no more single flat rate; different vehicles and time periods can carry different rates
• AI-driven approvals — submitted reports are checked against approval policies written in plain language (“when is business class allowed?”), with guidance for the approver. In this first release the controls apply at the level of a single expense line
• VAT calculation on expense reports — with an accountant confirming the calculation before posting
• Automatic withholding tax calculation — employee withholding taxes are computed within the expense report itself
• Better duplicate detection — including against already-posted documents, which is where the expensive duplicate-detection failures live
• More countries and languages — the agent now covers all Business Central countries; Czech, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish were added

The direction is right: V28’s Expense Agent could capture receipts; V29’s starts to fit into an actual approval and reimbursement control environment. But it’s preview — pilot it in a sandbox and keep your existing controls until Microsoft makes it generally available. For the full picture of how the module works, see the Expense Management module deep-dive.

The Silent Big One: A New Table Extension Data Model

This is the feature that will matter to the largest number of customers, and it’s the least flashy. Here’s the history it ends.

• Before version 23, every table extension’s fields were stored in their own companion table, so a table extended by seven apps could need a seven-way join on every read.
• From version 23, the fields from all extensions of a table were moved into one shared companion table — at most one join per read.
• In V29, that last join goes too: all fields on an AL table are stored in the same database table, base and extension alike.

What this means in practice:

• Faster reads and writes on extended tables — Microsoft describes it as faster performance on all database operations that involve table extensions
• The biggest gains on heavily extended, constantly read tables — Item, Customer, Sales Line, ledger entries. On a lightly customised tenant, don’t expect a dramatic jump: since V23 the penalty was already a single join
• Indexes that span base and extension fields — from runtime 18.0, a table extension can define keys that mix base-table and extension fields (not fields from a different table extension), which unlocks real query performance for ISVs and partners

It’s a platform change with no opt-in. Two caveats worth knowing: anything that reads the old companion tables directly in SQL (on-prem BI or ETL jobs) will need adjusting, and because base and extension fields now share one SQL table, the compiler warns when a table’s total field count approaches SQL Server’s column limits.

Financial Management

Three financial capabilities land in V29 — all three as public preview:

• Withholding tax extended to employee transactions — consistent calculation, posting, and compliance across employee payments
• Multiple excise duties per item — instead of being limited to one; relevant for regulated goods (alcohol, tobacco, fuel) across jurisdictions with layered excise rules
• Vendor-specific number series for self-billing invoices — tighter traceability for the self-billing feature introduced earlier

Two related items from the April 2026 wave also show up around V29: withholding tax for vendors, and accelerated depreciation methods for fixed assets, which arrive in 29.0 as a new optional Feature Management key that’s off until you turn it on.

None of these are headline-grabbers. All of them aim to remove a “we need an add-on or a workaround for that” from someone’s list — once they’re out of preview.

Supply Chain & Manufacturing

For distributors and manufacturers, V29 is quietly substantial:

• Subcontracting overhaul — routing comments and attachments now carry into the subcontracting purchase order, so the subcontractor gets operation instructions without anyone rekeying them or emailing a PDF on the side. Assisted setup with Contoso demo data for evaluating scenarios, and inventory put-away/pick support for subcontracting.
• Direct transfer orders from warehouse-enabled locations — previously, source locations that required inventory picks or warehouse shipments couldn’t use direct transfer orders, forcing multi-site distributors into full in-transit orders or manual workarounds. That block is gone, and the posting method can now be set per transfer route.
• Quality inspections auto-fill passed/failed quantities on completion, and posting errors become actionable — a blocked posting takes you straight to the inspection holding it up.
• Released production orders straight from the Planning Worksheet — plus capacity calendar monitoring and production BOM/routing access from actionable errors.

If your business touches subcontracting or multi-site transfers, these are workflow-correctness fixes, not “nice to haves.”

Reporting & Branding

Financial reporting gets a meaningful usability pass:

• Composable report themes — apply consistent branding across layouts globally, per company, per report, or per individual layout. No more maintaining near-identical layout copies just to change a logo or color.
• Reusable header/footer layouts across document reports
• Report packs — bundle multiple financial reports into a single scheduled PDF, delivered to report inboxes or by email
• Updated Word add-in — new design components, conditional visibility (HideIf logic), and header/footer-specific tools
• G/L account usage tracing in financial reports, plus mandatory change logging on financial report definitions

The branding piece in particular removes a pain point any multi-entity customer knows well: keeping a dozen slightly-different layouts in sync.

E-Commerce & Sustainability

• Shopify B2B support — manage B2B companies, catalogs, and pricing directly tied to Shopify plans; company tax identifiers and catalog separation from retail
• Order edits, exchanges and refunds — processed from Shopify, with a choice of credit memo or return order for returns, and the option to use the Shopify order number as the document number
• Shopify API update to the July 2026 API, with expiring access tokens and clearer sync diagnostics (connectors on the January 2026 API are supported until 31 December 2026)
• Tariff and origin sync — tariff numbers and country of origin flow from Shopify with product sync
• Carbon footprint tracking extended to fixed assets and to item/item-reclassification journals
• Emissions formulas — purchase documents calculate CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O from formula-based inputs
• Reversible sustainability ledger entries — reverse directly from the ledger entries page
• Carbon footprint estimates in Service Management

Developers & Admins

For partners, V29 is dense with real improvements:

• AL runtime 18.0 — the runtime version for V29
• New table extension data model (covered above) — the biggest developer-facing change
• Default implementations for AL interfaces — existing implementors keep working while new required methods are introduced safely
• Inherited tooltips — tooltips on pages/reports propagate to the actions that run them; write the description once
• Indexes on/off from AL code — and admins get the same toggle for SIFT indexes
• ALTool command-line testing — compile, deploy, and run AL test projects with structured JSON results for CI pipelines
• Simplified AL setup in VS Code — automatically acquires the .NET runtime, defaults to VS Code auth
• Standalone AL language server — language intelligence features outside VS Code, relevant for editor/agent integrations
• ModuleInfo improvements — read help, EULA, privacy, and locale-aware links from app manifests at runtime
• Page Scripting is generally available
• On-premises: PowerShell 5 is no longer supported (the admin modules are PowerShell 7), and data-defined-only permission sets are gone

The One Removal You Must Not Miss

V29 removes the ability to expose Microsoft pages as SOAP web services. The Feature Management key that kept older integrations running becomes mandatory, so there’s no way back.

Be precise about the scope:

• Affected: pages from any app whose publisher is Microsoft — the Base Application, the System Application and first-party apps — exposed as SOAP endpoints.
• Not affected: SOAP on codeunits, and SOAP on pages in your own or ISV extensions.
• When: at the moment each environment updates to V29, anywhere in the update window that runs to February 2027.
• Workaround: copy the Microsoft page into your own extension and publish that.

And don’t swap SOAP for OData on the same Microsoft page — Microsoft removes that in version 30 (April 2027). Move to the REST API v2.0 or your own API pages and queries.

We wrote the full migration playbook separately: SOAP deprecation and OData migration. If you haven’t audited your web services yet, do it now — this is not a two-week scramble item.

What This Means for Your Business

1. The agent story is now credible enough to plan around — for the GA parts. Payables matching on amount and date and MCP running real queries are generally available; the Expense Agent improvements and the new Copilot chat are still preview. Plan production around the first group, pilot the second.

2. Everyone gets a free performance upgrade. The table extension change is invisible but real, and it shows most on heavily extended tables.

3. SOAP is a real deadline, not a suggestion. If any of your integrations still touch SOAP on Microsoft pages, that’s your priority-one action from this release — and OData on Microsoft pages follows in version 30.

4. Financial localization is shrinking the “we need an add-on” list. Employee withholding tax, multiple excise duties and self-billing number series point that way — once they leave preview.

5. The announcement-model change is the meta-story. There’s no Wave 2 plan document. Track V29 and everything after it via the AI at Work roadmap. We covered how in the roadmap post.

Getting Started with V29

Version 29.0 became generally available on 1 October 2026. New environments are created directly on V29. Existing online environments get the update offer about a week after GA, and admins can schedule it on any date until February 2027; March 2027 is a grace period, and from April 2027 Microsoft enforces the update.

On-premises, you can upgrade directly from versions 25–28; version 24 or earlier goes through 25 first. Given the SOAP removal and the table-extension change, this is a release worth planning deliberately rather than letting it wash over you — our Business Central 29 upgrade guide walks through it step by step.

Want to understand what V29 means for your specific environment — the agent upgrades, the SOAP deadline, or the performance gains? Book a free discovery call and we’ll walk through it against your actual setup.

FAQ

When does Business Central 2026 Release Wave 2 (V29) become generally available?

Version 29.0 entered public preview in the first week of September 2026 and became generally available on 1 October 2026. New environments are created on V29; existing online environments can schedule the update until February 2027, followed by a grace period in March 2027 and enforced updates from April 2027.

What are the biggest changes in Business Central V29?

Three themes dominate: the Microsoft Copilot chat experience (in preview, replacing the old Chat with Copilot), sharper AI agents (Payables Agent matches PO lines on line amounts and expected receipt dates, and MCP Server can now define, validate, and run custom data queries), and a rewritten table extension data model that stores extension fields in the base table for a platform-wide performance gain.

What happened to the Release Plan for Wave 2?

There is no Wave 2 release plan document. From September 2026 Microsoft stopped publishing release plans and moved Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse announcements to the continuously updated AI at Work roadmap, with In Development / Rolling Out / Launched statuses. Business Central still ships major versions every April and October.

Is SOAP being removed in Business Central V29?

Version 29 removes the ability to expose pages from Microsoft-published apps as SOAP web services; the feature key that re-enabled them becomes mandatory. SOAP on codeunits and on your own or ISV extension pages still works, and the supported workaround is to copy the Microsoft page into your own extension. Migrate to the REST API v2.0 or your own API pages — not to OData on Microsoft pages, which is removed in version 30.

What does the new table extension data model do?

It stores all fields of a table, base and extension alike, in the same database table, removing the single join to a shared companion table that has been needed since version 23. That makes database operations on extended tables faster, most noticeably on heavily extended tables, and from runtime 18.0 developers can define keys that combine base-table and extension fields.

Is withholding tax standard in V29?

Partly, and in preview. V29 adds withholding tax on employee transactions and automatic withholding tax in Expense Agent reports, both as public preview. Withholding tax for vendors was announced in the April 2026 wave. Check the status in your environment and against your country’s rules — and your localization — before relying on it.

How does the Payables Agent match purchase orders differently in V29?

It now considers line amounts and expected receipt dates alongside description and quantity — which fixes matching for service lines (where quantity is often “1”) and for cases with multiple similar PO lines. It also respects the “Never block draft finalization” option of the Receipt on Invoice setting, which now exists per vendor, order and PO line.

Does V29 require configuration to get the performance improvement?

No. The table extension data model change is a platform change with no opt-in. On-premises, check any BI or ETL tools that read the old companion tables directly in SQL.

Vanguard 360 Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner and LS Retail Gold Partner based in Romania, serving clients across Europe, the UK, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Our work includes LS Central across 120+ stores in Romania, Pharmacy for LS Central across 100+ pharmacies in Norway, and the architecture for a 700-store retailer in 13 countries.