Business Central 2026 Wave 1 — Release-wave highlights for UK SMBs

This is an Amplio summary of a Microsoft BC announcement. Read the original on Microsoft Learn release plan. v0.2 of this site will replace seeded items with an automated RSS pull.

Microsoft's 2026 wave 1 release plan landed in February. From the perspective of UK SMB finance teams the headline items are Copilot extensions reaching general availability, deeper Power Automate integration in the standard BC client, and continued investment in the multi-environment management story for partners and multi-entity customers.

What we're paying attention to

• Copilot for finance. Variance analysis and journal narration are moving from preview to GA. Useful where they can be tied to dimension data; less useful as a chat overlay if the underlying data quality is weak.
• Power Automate templates inside BC. Common workflows (invoice approval, journal review) ship as one-click templates rather than full Power Automate builds. Lowers the cost of the small automation jobs that previously didn't justify a Power Platform engagement.
• Subscription Billing investments. Continuing to mature. We use it as the recurring-revenue backbone for our Smart Recurring Contracts extension; the wave 1 fixes are largely around indexation calculations.

What it means for active engagements

If you're mid-implementation: this is non-disruptive. The Copilot features are opt-in and Power Automate templates are additive. If you're considering a BC upgrade from an older on-prem version: wave 1 is a good landing point. Get in touch if you'd like a 30-minute walk-through of the wave 1 items most relevant to your sector.