Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is constantly evolving to meet the needs of modern businesses. 2025 release wave 1 brings a powerful set of enhancements focused on AI, analytics, sustainability, and automation.
Microsoft delivers two major updates per year for Business Central: Wave 1 begins rolling out in April and continues through the following months. Wave 2 starts in October and follows a similar phased rollout. These waves introduce new features gradually, allowing organizations to adopt innovations at a manageable pace. 2025 release wave 1 is already underway and includes many of the most anticipated capabilities for the year—especially in areas like sustainability reporting, enhanced analytics, and AI-powered productivity tools.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at the updates expected in June – what they are, how they work, and how they’ll help your business become more intelligent, efficient, and future-ready.
Sustainability Gets Smarter with AI and Analytics
Microsoft continues to invest heavily in sustainability features that allow organizations to better track, analyze, and report on greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and waste. The features support organizations in meeting different ESG standards that have come into play in Europe – namely the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). While Canada and USA do not currently mandate ESG reporting to the level of CSRD, these features are still of value, especially if your organization operates internationally or has EU-based stakeholders, you want to stay ahead of potential future regulations, or you’re pursuing voluntary ESG goals or certifications (e.g., B Corp, ISO 14001).
1. AI-Powered Sustainability Journals (Copilot)
What’s new: Business Central Copilot can now suggest entries for gas emissions in sustainability journals.
Why it matters: This update reduces the manual effort required to track emissions and improves data accuracy—especially helpful for ESG reporting and carbon footprint tracking. Companies in regulated markets like the EU will find this especially useful, but it’s also a proactive tool for Canadian businesses preparing for future reporting requirements.
2. Enhanced Sustainability Analytics
What’s new: Business Central now offers dashboards and KPIs specifically for emissions, energy usage, and waste metrics.
Why it matters: These real-time insights help decision-makers track sustainability performance and align with green initiatives.
Advanced Analytics Across Business Functions
As organizations continue to digitize operations, the ability to analyze performance across departments is becoming a competitive advantage. With version 26.0, Business Central introduces enhanced analytics capabilities that give teams deeper visibility into the metrics that matter most, whether on the factory floor, in project planning, or across procurement.
These updates are designed to help leaders make faster, data-driven decisions, reduce inefficiencies, and improve outcomes across the board. Let’s take a closer look at how these analytics upgrades are transforming core business functions.
3. Manufacturing Analytics Enhancements
What’s new: Deeper visibility into production metrics like downtime and throughput.
Why it matters: Manufacturing leaders can pinpoint inefficiencies, reduce waste, and optimize output.
4. Project Management Dashboards
What’s new: New visualizations for tracking timelines, budget adherence, and resource usage.
Why it matters: Teams gain better control over project delivery, helping to reduce delays and budget overruns.
5. Purchasing Insights
What’s new: Analytics for vendor performance, pricing trends, and procurement cycles.
Why it matters: Procurement teams can negotiate smarter, lower costs, and reduce supplier risk.
Smarter Reporting and Financial Insights
What’s new: Business Central continues to enhance its reporting capabilities, especially in areas like sustainability, subscription billing, and financial performance.
Why it matters: These updates reflect a broader shift toward self-service analytics and real-time reporting, empowering finance and sustainability teams to move beyond static reports and into dynamic, data-driven decision-making. Whether you’re using Excel, Power BI, or Business Central’s native tools, these enhancements make it easier to analyze trends, forecast outcomes, and communicate results across the organization.
6. Excel Reporting for Sustainability Data
What’s new: New Excel templates and data connectors tailored for sustainability metrics.
Why it matters: Enables finance and ESG teams to generate detailed reports with less effort and more consistency.
7. Subscription Billing Insights with Power BI
What’s new: Pre-built Power BI reports for subscription and recurring revenue data.
Why it matters: SaaS and subscription businesses can now monitor MRR, churn, and lifetime value with greater clarity.
Platform and Administration Improvements
As Business Central becomes more deeply embedded in daily operations, the need for robust platform management tools has never been greater. Admins and IT teams are tasked with maintaining performance, ensuring compatibility, and supporting agile development, all while minimizing downtime and manual effort.
In June, we will see several updates that streamline environment management, improve upgrade readiness, and enhance visibility into app compatibility. These features are especially valuable for organizations with multiple extensions, frequent deployments, or complex sandbox setups. They also reflect Microsoft’s ongoing investment in making Business Central more scalable, automated, and developer-friendly.
8. Automated Environment Management via Power Platform
What’s new: Use Power Platform connectors to automate tasks like sandbox creation, environment clean-up, and deployment.
Why it matters: IT teams can save time, reduce manual work, and ensure consistency across dev and production environments.
9. App Compatibility Checker
What’s new: The Business Central admin center now provides compatibility insights for installed apps ahead of updates.
Why it matters: Admins can proactively manage app extensions and avoid post-upgrade issues.
Expanding the AI and App Ecosystem
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how we interact with business software, and Business Central is no exception. Microsoft is expanding the role of Copilot across more modules and use cases. From summarizing records to automating sales orders and offering contextual help, Copilot is becoming a core productivity tool for users across departments.
This wave also strengthens Business Central’s partner ecosystem, with deeper integrations like Continia for e-documents, which streamline document handling and compliance. These updates reflect a broader trend toward intelligent automation and modular extensibility, allowing businesses to tailor their ERP experience while benefiting from built-in AI capabilities.
10. Copilot Enhancements Across Modules
What’s new: Copilot is now even more integrated into Business Central, assisting with:
- Summarizing customer records and sales orders
- Chat-based help for installed apps
- Sales order automation
Why it matters: Everyday tasks get done faster with fewer errors, helping users across departments work more efficiently.
11. E-Document Integration with Continia
What’s new: Business Central now supports Continia as a service provider for e-document handling.
Why it matters: Automates invoice processing, supports compliance with e-invoicing regulations, and reduces document handling costs.
Business Central Updates for June 2025 – Next Steps
The Business Central updates expected in June as part of 2025 Release Wave 1 will impact how businesses can harness data, automation, and AI to drive smarter decisions and more sustainable operations.
From AI-assisted sustainability journals to deep analytics across manufacturing, projects, and purchasing, these updates are designed to empower users across departments. Whether you’re looking to streamline reporting, improve operational visibility, or reduce your environmental impact, this release delivers tools that are both practical and forward-thinking.
As always, staying current with Business Central updates ensures your organization remains competitive, compliant, and ready to scale. Be sure to review the full Microsoft release plan and work with your implementation partner to plan your adoption strategy.
Ready to take advantage of these new features? Let’s talk about how your business can make the most of Business Central 26.