Business Central 2025 Release Wave 2 (Version 27): What Business Leaders Need to Know
Microsoft has started rolling out Dynamics 365 Business Central 2025 release wave 2 – version 27. Twice a year, Business Central online receives a major update, and every update raises the same question for leadership teams: what actually changes for our business, and what do we need to do? In this article we skip the technical detail and focus on the changes that affect productivity, reporting, compliance and cost.
Key takeaways for leaders
- Copilot becomes more useful in daily work: better chat, smarter analysis and automatic field suggestions.
- Six Power BI apps (Finance, Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Projects and Manufacturing) are enhanced, giving management ready-made dashboards.
- For UK customers, the UK localisation can now be installed as an extension to the base application.
- Sustainability Management can now calculate CBAM and EPR obligations and track energy use.
- E-invoicing support expands, an important step as the UK government consults on e-invoicing and EU customers adopt it.
- Online customers can schedule the update at any time until 28 February 2026, but should test in a sandbox first.
Copilot Gets More Practical
Version 27 continues Microsoft’s push to put AI into everyday ERP work rather than in a separate tool:
- Enhanced chat with Copilot (preview): users can ask questions about their data and how to do things in Business Central in natural language.
- Analysis assist (now generally available) helps users build analyses of lists, such as sales by customer or overdue items, without writing a report.
- Autofill with Copilot (preview) suggests field values, for example contact details, to reduce manual typing.
- Advanced Tell Me search (preview) makes it easier to find the right page or report, even if you don’t know its exact name.
- Transparent billing: Business Central now shows how each Copilot and agent capability is billed, so finance teams can plan AI costs.
Microsoft’s AI agents, such as the Sales Order Agent, are also maturing quickly. Users can now give the agent extra instructions while reviewing its tasks.
Better Insight with Enhanced Power BI Apps
For executives, this may be the most immediately valuable part of the release. Microsoft has enhanced and open-sourced its Power BI apps for Business Central:
- Finance: new insights to improve cash flow.
- Sales and Purchasing: modernised sales analytics and vendor risk analysis.
- Inventory: forecasts of future inventory flow.
- Projects: analysis of project profitability.
- Manufacturing: modernised manufacturing analytics.
Drill-back from Power BI into Business Central and dynamic dimension names make the reports far more practical in daily use. Our reporting and analytics team can help you tailor these apps to your KPIs.
What's New for UK Customers
The UK localisation can now be installed as an extension to the base application, rather than being built into a separate UK version. This brings the UK version closer to Microsoft’s standard application and makes future updates smoother. UK-specific functionality, such as Making Tax Digital for VAT, continues to work as before.
Sustainability Reporting
Large customers, lenders and regulators increasingly ask for emissions data, and quoted and large UK companies already report under SECR. Version 27 significantly expands Sustainability Management:
- CBAM and EPR calculations for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and Extended Producer Responsibility. The UK has announced its own CBAM from 2027, and packaging EPR is already a live topic for UK businesses.
- Tracking of energy consumption, with all gases measured as CO2 equivalents.
- Social and governance information about employees for ESG reporting.
E-invoicing and Finance
The UK government consulted on e-invoicing in 2025, and many EU customers already require it. The E-Documents framework gets important updates: e-documents can be created from posted sales invoices, reminders and finance charge memos can be exported as Peppol files, and a clearance model (preview) supports countries where invoices must be approved by the tax authority. Finance teams also benefit from enhanced financial reporting, easier creation of multiple fixed asset cards and alternative posting groups for employees.
What This Means for Your Business
From a management perspective, version 27 delivers three things: faster everyday work through Copilot, better decisions through stronger analytics, and lower compliance risk through sustainability and e-invoicing features. None of these require a new system or a big project. They are part of the subscription you already pay for, but you only benefit if your team knows about them and they are switched on and configured.
How to Prepare
- Create a sandbox environment on version 27 and test your key processes, extensions and integrations.
- Check Feature Management, because several optional features have become mandatory.
- Schedule the production update before the update window closes on 28 February 2026. Avoid month-end and year-end closing periods.
- Plan short training sessions so users actually adopt the new capabilities.
On-premises customers on version 24 or earlier must upgrade to version 25 before moving to version 27.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Business Central version 27 available?
Version 27 (2025 release wave 2) started rolling out in October 2025. Online customers can schedule the update at any time within the update window, which ends on 28 February 2026.
Do we have to pay extra for the new features?
Most new features are included in your Business Central subscription. Some Copilot agent capabilities are billed by consumption, and Business Central now shows how each AI capability is billed.
Is the update risky for our customisations?
Business Central is built on extensions, so updates are much safer than the upgrades of the NAV era. We still recommend testing your extensions and integrations in a sandbox before updating production.
Business Central version 27 is a practical release: it makes AI more useful, management reporting richer and compliance easier.
Would you like a short briefing on what version 27 means for your company, or help testing the update? Contact us or book a call with one of our experts.
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