What’s new and planned for Dynamics 365 Business Central
This topic lists features that are planned to release from October 2020 through March 2021. Because this topic lists features that may not have released yet, delivery timelines may change and projected functionality may not be released.
In the General availability column, the feature will be delivered within the month listed. The delivery date can be any day within that month. Released features show the full date, including the day of release.
This check mark (✔️) shows which features have been released for public preview or early access and for general availability.
Administration
The 2020 release wave 2 delivers a set of features that are designed to simplify and improve the way partners administer tenants, and the way administrators carry out administration tasks for licensing and permissions.
| Feature | Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
| Improved overview and management of the available database and file capacity | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Log of admin operations in the Business Central admin centre | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Service-to-service authentication for Automation APIs | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Support for additional Azure AD roles for the customer admins to access Business Central admin centre |
End users by admins, makers, or analysts | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Support for an unlimited number of production and sandbox environments | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Manage irreversible features | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Jun 10, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Database access intent changed to read-only for frequently used reports | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Deprecation of the legacy Dynamics NAV Help Server component | End users, automatically | ✔️Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Speed up low-level code calculations | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Disable Integration Records and Integration Management | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Schedule data update of application features enabled through Feature Management | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Restoring environments to a point in time in the past | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | Dec 2020 | Feb 2021 |
Application
With Business Central 2020 release wave 2, we deliver enhancements that were suggested through the aka.ms/bcideas website.
| Feature | Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
| Business Central Company Hub | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| VAT group reporting | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Default unit cost for non-inventory items | End users, automatically | ✔️ May 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Track packages from more types of sales documents | End users, automatically | ✔️ May 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Consolidation file format support for Dynamics 365 Finance | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Auto-resolve Common Data Service conflicts | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Check financial journals in background | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Improved control over how and when you post WIP entries for jobs to the general ledger |
End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Write longer item references | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Use the copy journal function on Posted General Journals and control date for reversing entries in Recurring General Journals |
End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 4, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Use Word document layouts to customize outgoing customer documents | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 4, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Easier to choose the right Role Center | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 5, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Remove coupling of records integrated with Common Data Service in bulk | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Restore synchronization defaults for Common Data Service integration for selected Integration Table Mapping |
End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Use contact mobile phone number and email consistently across application | End users, automatically | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Use conversion templates to convert contacts to vendors and employees | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Define retention policies | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Notify users of high-risk changes in selected setup fields | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | Nov 2020 |
| Use recurring journals to allocate balances by dimension values | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | Oct 2020 | Nov 2020 |
| Enhanced email capabilities | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Aug 3, 2020 | Nov 2020 |
| Bank reconciliation improvements | End users, automatically | Dec 2020 | Feb 2021 |
Migrations to Business Central online
Features for migration from Dynamics on-premises products to Business Central online.
| Feature | Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
| Continued enhancements for migrating from Dynamics GP to Business Central | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Historical data migration from Dynamics GP to Azure Data Lake | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Migrate from Business Central 14.x on-premises to Business Central 16.x online | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Migrate from Business Central 15.x on-premises to Business Central 16.x online | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
Modern clients
In 2020 release wave 2, we shift our focus toward maturing the reliability and usability of current productivity features, including more user options for printing, and ensuring clients are accessible to our diverse set of users.
| Feature | Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
| Updates to page styling | End users, automatically | ✔️ Jul 28, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Changes to the action bar in lookup dialog boxes | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Jul 31, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Improved accessibility for low-vision users | End users, automatically | ✔️ Jul 31, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Page Inspector supports temporary tables | End users, automatically | ✔️ Jul 31, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Pages with FactBoxes are more responsive | End users, automatically | ✔️ Jul 31, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Report request page can open multiple previews | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 4, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Update the navigation experience terminology to improve usability | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 4, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Role Centres open faster | End users, automatically | ✔️ Aug 10, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Easy access to production or sandbox environments from the mobile app | End users, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | Nov 2020 |
| Unblock multifactor authentication for mobile apps | End users, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | Nov 2020 |
Modern development tools
As we have made the move entirely to Visual Studio Code, we continue to invest in areas that enhance productivity for developers.
| Feature | Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
| AppSource apps can store their secrets in Azure Key Vault | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Code documentation comments | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Aug 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Code region compiler directive | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Aug 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Delete extension data | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Aug 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Obsolete implicit and explicit use of ‘with’ | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Aug 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Suppress AL warnings | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Aug 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Business Central Performance Toolkit | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Sep 8, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Aligning license checks between sandbox and production environments | End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 11, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Snapshots – troubleshooting in production environments | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | Dec 2020 |
Seamless service
No matter the industry type of a small or medium-sized business (SMB), business users expect a dependable service and platform on which to run their business.
| Feature | Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
|
Ability for developers and end users to override the system setting for maximum time a report can run |
Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Data audit system fields are added to every table | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| On-demand joining of companion tables | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | – | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Debug extension installation and upgrade code | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Sep 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Attach to user session when debugging | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Developers can emit telemetry to Application Insights from AL code | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Extension publishers can get telemetry in Azure Application Insights | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
| Renaming environments in the Business Central admin center | Admins, makers, or analysts, automatically | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Signal about long-running AL execution added to Application Insights telemetry for partners |
End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Signal from outgoing web service requests added to Application Insights telemetry for partners |
End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 | ✔️ Oct 1, 2020 |
|
Signal from web service key authentication added to Application Insights telemetry for partners |
End users by admins, makers, or analysts | ✔️ Sep 30, 2020 | Dec 2020 |