Microsoft’s July 2026 update for Dynamics 365 Business Central, version 28.3, includes a practical mix of AI enhancements, administrative improvements, expanded manufacturing functionality, and platform corrections.
While several of the changes focus on Microsoft’s growing collection of AI agents, this update is not limited to Copilot. Business Central administrators will also find new options for managing extensions, improved Shopify B2B integration, enhanced subcontracting capabilities, and important corrections affecting Excel exports, sales orders, warehouse activity, and financial processing.
Here is what Business Central customers should know about the latest update—and what to test before relying on the new functionality in production.
How to Confirm Your Business Central Version
To verify which version your environment is currently running:
- Open Business Central.
- Select the question mark in the upper-right corner.
- Choose Help & Support.
- Open Troubleshooting.
- Review the Current version information.
Business Central Online updates are deployed through Microsoft’s staged rollout process, so version 28.3 may not reach every environment on the same day.
Administrators can review or schedule the update from the Business Central Admin Center:
- Open Environments.
- Select the applicable environment.
- Open Update Settings.
- Select Modify beside Next Update.
- Choose version 28.3 when it is listed as available.
- Select the preferred installation date.
Updates run during the environment’s configured maintenance window.
1. The Sales Order Agent Is More Flexible and More Accurate
The Sales Order Agent received one of the most significant improvements in this release. Businesses can now support multiple Sales Order Agent configurations within the same company. Each agent can be assigned its own mailbox, folder, signature, sales team, processing rules, and performance tracking.
This makes the agent more useful for organizations with separate sales channels, business units, geographic regions, or customer groups. Rather than routing every incoming request through a single mailbox and configuration, a company could create separate agents for wholesale orders, regional sales teams, or different product lines.
Microsoft also improved how the agent identifies products on customer purchase orders. It now searches exact identifiers—including item numbers, vendor item numbers, GTINs, and cross-references—before using broader semantic or fuzzy matching.
The agent can also:
- Process PDF purchase orders of up to 50 pages.
- Filter out irrelevant messages and attachments.
- Explain why an attachment was skipped.
- Test sample emails and purchase orders without sending an actual email.
- Reduce unnecessary Copilot credit consumption by ignoring irrelevant content earlier in the process.
How to Access It
- Search for Copilot & Agent Capabilities.
- Confirm that the Sales Order Agent is enabled.
- Select the Sales Order Agent icon from the Role Center.
- Choose Activate or Configure.
- Configure the mailbox, monitored folder, language, document rules, attachment handling, review requirements, and outgoing email format.
- Turn on Active when the configuration is complete.
The new Try it out option can be used to test a sample customer request or PDF purchase order without routing the request through an actual mailbox.
Because Microsoft deploys some capabilities gradually, customers should confirm that the multiple-agent options are visible in a version 28.3 sandbox before designing a production process around them.
2. The Payables Agent Now Includes a 50-Invoice Trial
Organizations can now test the Payables Agent using their first 50 invoices without consuming billable Copilot credits.
The trial also removes one of the initial setup barriers: a company does not need to connect an accounts-payable mailbox before testing the agent. Users can upload vendor invoice PDFs directly through the setup process and review how the agent extracts and matches the invoice data.
The Payables Agent can identify the vendor, analyze purchasing history, extract invoice details, and create a draft purchase document for review. It does not automatically post the invoice. A user must still review the vendor, invoice lines, tax, dimensions, and other financial information before posting.
After the first 50 invoices, the agent transitions to the standard credit-based processing model.
How to Access It
- Search for Copilot & Agent Capabilities and confirm that the Payables Agent is enabled.
- Select the Payables Agent icon from the Role Center.
- Choose Activate.
- Locate the Try the Payables Agent section.
- Upload a vendor invoice PDF or select one of Microsoft’s sample invoices.
- Monitor the processing status in the agent task pane.
- Open and review the resulting draft document.
A mailbox is not required during the file-upload trial. To move into regular email-based processing, return to the agent configuration and select the mailbox and folder the agent should monitor.
3. Expense Agent Can Assign Projects and Project Tasks
The Expense Agent now allows employees to assign a Project and Project Task while entering or editing an expense.
This is especially useful for consulting firms, contractors, professional services organizations, and other businesses that need to track employee expenses against projects. Travel, meals, materials, mileage, and other costs can now be categorized correctly before the expense report reaches the accounting or approval team.
The project fields appear on the expense’s Categorization tab. Administrators can also control which projects employees are allowed to select.
How to Access It
- Search for Copilot & Agent Capabilities.
- Confirm that Expense Agent is enabled.
- Select the Expense Agent icon and choose Activate.
- Enable access through the Expense Agent web application.
- Continue through assisted setup until reaching the Projects section.
- Enable project fields and define which projects should be available.
- Complete the accounting, policy, approval, communication, mileage, and per-diem settings.
- Activate the agent.
Employees can then open an expense in the web application, go to Categorization, and select the appropriate Project and Project Task.
This capability is currently a public-preview feature, so it should be validated carefully before it becomes part of a required accounting or reimbursement process.
4. Shopify B2B Integration Is Available on More Plans
Business Central’s Shopify Connector has expanded its B2B company functionality beyond Shopify Plus.
The connector can synchronize Shopify companies and company locations with Business Central customers. This includes billing addresses, payment terms, tax identifiers, contacts, and other company-level information.
Business Central customers can also be exported to Shopify as B2B companies or company locations. This gives organizations more flexibility when maintaining customer information, pricing arrangements, and business-to-business orders across both platforms.
How to Access It
- Search for Shopify Shop.
- Open the applicable Shopify connection.
- Review the B2B company settings.
- Configure company-import behavior, company mapping, tax-ID mapping, payment terms, customer creation, and price synchronization.
- Use Sync Company to import or update Shopify companies.
- Use the Shopify Company page to export a Business Central customer to Shopify.
Before turning on scheduled synchronization, review payment-term mappings and decide whether Shopify tax information should map to the Business Central registration number or VAT registration number.
5. Per-Tenant Extensions Can Be Managed from Admin Center
Business Central administrators are gaining more direct control over per-tenant extensions, commonly called PTEs, through the Business Central Admin Center.
The new functionality is intended to allow administrators to upload .app packages, install them immediately or schedule installation, and review installed or upcoming extension versions. This reduces the need to rely exclusively on in-client Extension Management or separate deployment processes.
The related Admin Center APIs also create opportunities for partners and internal development teams to automate deployments through CI/CD pipelines.
How to Access It
- Open the Business Central Admin Center.
- Select Environments.
- Open the applicable production or sandbox environment.
- Select Manage Apps.
- Filter the app type to Per-Tenant Extension.
- Upload the
.apppackage when the new deployment controls are available. - Choose immediate installation or schedule the installation.
Microsoft documentation and tenant rollout timing may not always align. If the upload option is not visible yet, continue using the existing Extension Management or deployment process until the new Admin Center controls appear.
6. Subcontracting Is More Complete for Manufacturing Companies
Microsoft’s Subcontracting extension now supports a broader process for sending production operations to outside vendors.
The functionality can manage the transfer of raw materials and components to a subcontractor, subcontracting purchase orders, warehouse activity, item tracking, receipts, finished goods, and related production costs.
Companies can also define subcontractor pricing based on the work center, item, date, and quantity. Transportation, packaging, and other indirect costs can be handled using transfer orders and item charges.
How to Access It
- Search for Extension Management.
- Locate and install Microsoft’s Subcontracting extension.
- Search for Manufacturing Setup.
- Open the Subcontracting FastTab.
- Configure journal templates, component-transfer lead times, cost handling, and production-order information.
- Open the applicable Work Center Cards and enter the subcontractor vendor number.
- Configure the subcontractor’s vendor and location records.
- Use the Subcontracting Worksheet to identify production operations ready to be outsourced.
This is an important update for manufacturers that currently manage subcontracting through manual purchase orders, spreadsheets, or custom extensions.
7. E-Documents Can Include Payment Status
The E-Document framework can now support payment statuses such as:
- Fully paid
- Partially paid
- Unpaid
Depending on the service provider and integration, Business Central may be able to send or receive payment information through accounts-payable or accounts-receivable access points.
The transmitted information can include the payment date, amount collected, taxable base amount, and tax amount at the time of payment.
How to Access It
- Search for E-Document Services.
- Create or open the applicable service.
- Configure the document format and service integration.
- Set up the supported document types and processing options.
- Configure the related E-Document workflow.
- Assign the workflow through a Document Sending Profile.
- Open a posted document and access its related E-Document.
This feature is in public preview. Availability will also depend on whether the organization’s E-Document service provider supports the new payment information.
8. New Excise-Tax Calculations Support Plastic and Sugar Taxes
Business Central now includes functionality for calculating certain plastic- and sugar-related excise taxes.
The calculation framework can use material content, transaction quantity, weight, and unit of measure. New fields are available on Item Cards and Fixed Asset Cards, including:
- Excise Tax Type
- Quantity for Excise Tax
- Excise Unit of Measure
Excise journals can calculate amounts from purchasing, sales, manufacturing, assembly, inventory adjustments, and fixed-asset transactions.
How to Access It
Open the applicable Item Card or Fixed Asset Card and complete the new excise-tax fields. Administrators can then use Business Central’s excise-tax setup and journal pages to define the tax type and calculate applicable amounts.
This change will be more relevant to multinational organizations and companies operating in jurisdictions that impose these taxes. U.S.-only businesses may have limited use for it.
9. Important Platform and U.S. Corrections
Business Central 28.3 also includes several corrections that may have an immediate impact on everyday users.
Excel exports now use a more efficient streaming process. This should reduce memory consumption and improve reliability when exporting large lists such as G/L Entries, Item Ledger Entries, and other high-volume datasets.
Microsoft also corrected issues involving:
- Firefox list-page performance.
- Focus Mode scrolling.
- ListPart column sorting.
- Pasting valid data into list pages.
- Clearing filters created with Filter to This Value.
- Dimensions on G/L entries created from assigned item charges.
- Payment-tolerance recalculations.
- Sales Order Agent purchase-order attachments.
- Sales Order Analysis mode.
- Serial numbers containing special characters.
- Warehouse picks for project planning lines with serial tracking.
What to Test After the Update
After updating a sandbox to version 28.3, we recommend testing the following:
- Export a large list to Excel and compare speed and stability.
- Apply and clear filters using normal keyboard shortcuts.
- Send the Sales Order Agent a representative customer purchase order.
- Open Sales Orders in Analysis mode and test saved views, sorting, and filtering.
- Process serial numbers containing permitted special characters.
- Register a warehouse pick related to a project planning line.
- Post an invoice with assigned item charges and confirm that dimensions flow correctly to the G/L entries.
- Test critical per-tenant and AppSource extensions.
What Should Business Central Customers Prioritize?
For most U.S. Business Central customers, the highest-priority areas are:
- Sales Order Agent improvements, especially purchase-order recognition and multiple-agent configurations.
- The Payables Agent trial, which offers a low-risk way to evaluate invoice automation.
- Excel-export performance, particularly for finance and operations teams that work with large datasets.
- U.S.-specific sales and warehouse corrections.
- Custom and per-tenant extension compatibility.
- Project expense assignment, where project accounting is a core business requirement.
As with any Business Central update, new features should be reviewed in a sandbox before the production environment is updated. This is especially important for AI agents, preview functionality, custom extensions, integrations, manufacturing workflows, and warehouse processes.
Need Help Reviewing Business Central 28.3?
Aisling can help your team review the new functionality, identify relevant features, test critical processes, and prepare a practical update plan for your Business Central environment.