Business Central Version 28 - New Features & Functions

Business Central version 28 (2026 Release Wave 1) is one of the larger recent updates. Microsoft is pushing heavily into AI agents, supply chain controls, finance automation, and developer modernization. These changes are deployed for the cloud-based products only and do not include the onPrem product.

The rollout started April 2026 and runs through September 2026.

Key changes:

New AI-powered agents

Microsoft is introducing more autonomous workflow automation inside Business Central.

Examples include:

* Payables Agent

* Expense automation

* AI-assisted approvals

* Invoice interpretation and coding

* Task pane for agent activities

* Review/edit AI-generated content before posting

MCP Server support

BC28 expands Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for AI integrations and future Copilot extensibility. This matters for custom AI workflows and external orchestration.

Supply Chain & Manufacturing

This area got meaningful operational improvements. Approval workflows added to operational journals. You can now require approvals for:

* Item Journals

* Physical Inventory Journals

* Output Journals

* Consumption Journals

* Requisition Worksheets

* Planning Worksheets

Once approval is submitted, records become locked until approved/rejected.

Quality Management (Major Addition)

BC28 introduces native quality inspection capabilities.

You can now perform quality checks on:

* Purchase receipts

* Production output

* Assembly output

* Scheduled inspections

Supported inspection dimensions include:

* Lots

* Serial numbers

* Package numbers

* Weight

* Dimensions

This is a major addition for manufacturers and distributors. Previously, many companies needed ISV add-ons for this.

Item & Variant Improvements

Variant attributes - You can now manage attributes directly at the item variant level. Attributes can now sync from parent item to variants automatically.

Variant images - Improved support for variant-specific images.

Finance & Accounting Enhancements

E-document improvements

New capabilities include:

* Linking inbound e-documents directly to purchase invoices

* Default e-document types on vendor templates

* Better automation around vendor invoices

Approval workflow APIs

New read-only APIs expose approval data for:

* Power BI

* Audit reporting

* Compliance analytics

Shopify & Ecommerce

Shopify integration received a major upgrade.

New capabilities:

* Custom collections

* Variant image sync

* Item attribute mapping

* Multi-currency checkout synchronization

* Better product option handling

Search & User Experience

Advanced Tell Me becomes mandatory

The newer AI-enhanced Tell Me search is now enforced.

Optimized search

* Semantic metadata search

* Faster list searching

* Better text indexing

New developer features

* NuGet-based symbol download

* Run AL tests directly in VS Code

* Better object execution handling

* Fully qualified object naming

* BC-Bench support for AI coding agents

CBR Technology brings deep real-world manufacturing and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central expertise, helping manufacturers streamline operations, improve inventory accuracy, strengthen production visibility, and implement scalable ERP processes tailored to their business. With the release of Business Central version 28, Microsoft has introduced native quality management capabilities including built-in quality inspections for purchase receipts, production output, assemblies, lot and serial tracking, quarantine processes, and certificates of analysis. These new features are especially valuable for manufacturing organizations seeking tighter quality control, regulatory compliance, reduced rework, and better operational accountability without relying heavily on third-party add-ons. CBR Technology helps clients successfully deploy and optimize these capabilities as part of a modern, fully integrated manufacturing ERP strategy.

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