Business Central 29.0 Preview: What Should You Test Before October?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 29.0 is now available in public preview. The smartest use of the preview is not to browse new features. It is to test the parts of your own environment that could create business risk when the update reaches production.
Microsoft says the 29.0 public preview runs from the first week of September until general availability in the first week of October 2026. Existing sandbox environments can be updated to the preview so extensions, setup, and representative data can be tested before production is affected.
Treat the preview like a business-risk test
Business Central environments become unique over time. Extensions are installed. Integrations connect other systems. Posting setup evolves. Permissions change. Reports get modified. Job queues and APIs become part of daily operations.
That is why a preview test should focus first on what is specific to your company. A feature tour can be useful, but regression testing protects the processes that already have to work on day one.
1. Test extensions before users depend on the update
Start with every extension that supports a critical process. Install or update the extension in the 29.0 preview sandbox and run the transactions that matter, not just the page that proves the extension installed successfully.
For finance, that might mean posting journals, sales invoices, purchase invoices, credit memos, or allocations. For operations, it might mean receiving, shipping, production, planning, warehouse activity, or service work. The goal is to prove the extension behaves correctly inside the business process around it.
2. Test integrations in both directions
An integration can appear healthy while still failing on a field mapping, API response, authentication change, timing issue, or exception path. Test the full transaction path from source system to Business Central and back again when the integration is bidirectional.
Microsoft cloud and connected business systems should also be included when the Business Central process depends on Power BI, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Azure, or another connected service.
3. Re-run your highest-risk financial workflows
Finance should test workflows that affect the general ledger, tax, dimensions, posting groups, bank activity, inventory valuation, and period-end reporting. Do not assume a successful basic posting proves the entire close process is safe.
Use representative transactions, reconcile the result, and compare expected ledger entries to actual entries. If finance cannot explain the result, the test is not finished.
4. Put inventory and manufacturing exceptions into the test
Perfect transactions are easy. Exceptions are where ERP changes get interesting. Test partial receipts, partial shipments, returns, substitutions, production changes, shortages, cost adjustments, and planning scenarios that reflect real operations.
A manufacturer or distributor should include the transactions that create the most support work today. Those are exactly the processes you want evidence for before an update reaches production.
5. Test job queues, APIs, permissions, and scheduled work
Background work is easy to forget because users do not touch it directly. Inventory calculations, integrations, scheduled reports, recurring jobs, notifications, and automation can fail quietly until somebody notices the downstream result.
Test service accounts and permission sets too. A process that works for an administrator can still fail for the person who actually performs the job.
6. Confirm reports and decision tools still tell the same story
If leaders depend on a report every morning or finance depends on a reconciliation every month, include it in the preview test. Validate filters, totals, dimensions, refresh behavior, and any connected data model that depends on Business Central.
triniT Partners solutions often span ERP, reporting, integrations, and AI, so testing should follow the decision workflow across systems rather than stop at the Business Central screen.
7. Record evidence, not just pass or fail
For each critical scenario, capture the test data, expected outcome, actual outcome, person who tested it, and any follow-up action. That creates a defensible go-live decision and makes retesting much faster when something changes.
One more change to your release habit
Microsoft also says that starting in September 2026 it will stop publishing traditional Release Plans and move new Business Central capabilities to the AI at Work roadmap. That makes it even more important to build a repeatable internal process for monitoring changes, deciding what matters, and testing the areas that affect your environment.
The practical takeaway
Do not wait for a production update to discover which extension, integration, or workflow needed attention. Use the preview period to find the boring problems while they are still sandbox problems.
If you want experienced Business Central help reviewing what to test or how to prepare your environment, triniT Partners can help you build a practical update-readiness plan.
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