What can you concretely expect? And above all: what does this mean for your ERP environment?

In this article, we provide an overview of the key trends and improvements in Business Central, and how we at VanRoey help organisations to maximise their benefit from these.

Wat is een Release Wave?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central continually evolves through two major releases each year: Wave 1 (spring) and Wave 2 (autumn).

Each release brings new functionalities, improvements, and integrations that help organisations further digitise their processes.

The 2026 Wave 1 mainly focuses on:

• AI and Copilot integrations
• Automating financial processes
• better insights and reporting
• improved user experience
• Further integration with Microsoft 365

1. Copilot and AI agents become effectively usable in Business Central

The biggest evolution in this release is undoubtedly AI taking on concrete work.

Microsoft is increasingly integrating Copilot functionalities and AI agents directly into Business Central. These assist users with daily tasks such as:

• automatic recognition and processing of supplier invoices
• providing insight into product performance via KPI summaries
• Managing tasks from different AI agents from a single overview
• View AI-generated content directly on Business Central pages.

Specifically, this means:

• less manual work
• Faster insight into business data
• more time for strategic decisions

For finance teams and operational managers, this can mean a significant gain in efficiency.

2. Smarter automation of financial processes

Business Central is also taking further steps in automating financial workflows.

AI-driven processes help with, among other things:

• processing incoming invoices
• recognising suppliers and booking suggestions
• the automatic creation of purchase invoices for review.

Financial insights are also becoming increasingly intelligent thanks to improved analysis and forecasting.

For organisations, this means:

• Faster closing of accounting periods
• better cash flow forecasts
• fewer manual administrative tasks.

3. Better insights and reporting for better decisions

Data is only valuable when it is understandable and usable.

That's why Microsoft's focus in this release is on:

• detailed KPI summaries for products and operational data
• faster analysis and insights
• better reporting capabilities.

This helps companies gain faster insight into:

• Product performance
• margins
• operational efficiency.

Business Central is increasingly evolving towards A decision platform, rather than solely an ERP system.

4. Improved search and navigation features

Besides AI, Microsoft is also investing heavily in ease of use and productivity.

An example of this is improved full-text search within lists and lookup fields. This allows users to find the correct records or documents in the system more quickly.

For organisations with large datasets, this can save a lot of time daily.

5. Practical Improvements in Supply Chain and Logistics

Operational processes are also being further refined.

A great example: Business Central now allows you to post purchase invoices for drop shipments without having to post the corresponding sales invoice first.

This sounds technical, but concretely means:

• more flexible logistics workflows
• fewer blockages in invoicing processes
• More efficient collaboration with suppliers.

Business Central remains the ERP solution for growing SMEs. Organisations with scenarios such as multi-entity structures, international consolidation or global supply chains sometimes look to Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain as the next step within the Microsoft ERP ecosystem.

What does this mean for your Business Central environment?

Every release of Business Central offers opportunities, but can also impact:

• existing configurations
• Bespoke or extensions
• integrations with other systems.

This is why it is important to promptly evaluate and correctly test new releases before they are fully deployed into production.

How VanRoey supports you with this

At VanRoey, we closely follow the evolution of Business Central.

We help organisations to:

• to correctly implement new functionalities
• to analyse the impact on customisation and integrations
• run sandbox tests for updates
• To optimally utilise AI capabilities such as Copilot
• to keep their ERP environment future-proof.

This is how you get maximum return from every Business Central release, without risk to your business processes.

Ready for the next step with Business Central?

With Microsoft takes further steps with the 2026 Release Wave 1 towards a smarter ERP platform in which automation, AI and data-driven insights are central. Business Central is evolving more and more from a classic ERP system to a platform that actively helps to make processes more efficient and to make better decisions.

It is therefore important for organisations to consider which new opportunities are relevant to their environment and how they can best be capitalised upon.

At VanRoey, we closely follow these developments. Our experts are happy to help you analyse the impact of this update and see how you can make your Business Central connect even better with your business processes.

Would you like to know what this release concretely means for your organisation? Please feel free to contact us.