BC RELEASES · · 6 min read

Business Central Release Roadmap: How to Stay Current

BC ships two release waves a year — April and October. Here is how UAE and KSA customers plan around the calendar to capture every new capability cleanly.

NOVASOFT · BC RELEASES
Written by Novasoft
Microsoft and LS Retail Diamond Partner | UAE and KSA | May 2026 | 6 min read
BC RELEASES RELEASE WAVES ROADMAP

Business Central Release Roadmap: How to Stay Current

Two waves a year, automatic on SaaS. Here is how UAE and KSA BC customers plan around the calendar to capture every new capability cleanly.

Business Central ships two release waves per year — Wave 1 in April and Wave 2 in October. On SaaS, updates flow automatically; on on-prem, they require a manual upgrade. Either way, planning around the calendar pays off.

The Wave Calendar

Stage WAVE 1 WAVE 2
Plans publishedJanuaryJuly
Preview opensFebruaryAugust
General availabilityAprilOctober
Automatic on SaaSWithin 90 daysWithin 90 days

Five Steps to Stay Ahead

  1. Subscribe to the release plan. Microsoft publishes the full wave plan two months before GA — read it for the items relevant to your business.
  2. Provision a preview tenant. Spin up a sandbox with the preview release; test against your real data.
  3. Run extension compatibility tests. Confirm every AppSource and partner extension is compatible with the new wave.
  4. Communicate to users. Highlight 3–5 changes that affect their daily work — not the full release notes.
  5. Schedule the production update. SaaS auto-updates; on-prem needs a windowed maintenance slot.

The release cadence is the platform

BC's release cadence is what makes it a platform rather than a snapshot product. New capability ships every six months — Copilot, e-invoicing, AI agents, sustainability features. The business that ignores the wave plan misses the platform's compounding value.

For UAE and KSA customers, the FTA and ZATCA features in particular tend to land in specific waves — worth tracking.

"The wave plan is the cheapest training a BC customer never reads. Two hours in January and July capture six months of usable capability."
— Amit Sobti, Director, Novasoft

Why Implement with Novasoft?

Novasoft tracks every BC release wave for our managed-support customers — a release readiness briefing and a preview tenant come standard with managed support. Reference: Microsoft Learn — BC release plans and Dynamics 365 release plan portal. Pair with upgrade and migrate for on-prem moves.

Briefed
Wave readiness briefings every cycle.
Tested
Preview tenants and extension regression.
Communicated
User-facing change notes per wave.

Stay Current Without the Drama

Bring your BC tenant and active extensions. We will brief you on the current wave in 30 minutes.

Book Free Assessment Managed Support

Sources

  1. Microsoft Learn — BC release plans. learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central
  2. Dynamics 365 release plan portal. learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365-release-plan
  3. Microsoft — Business Central product hub. microsoft.com/business-central

Last updated May 2026

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Novasoft

Microsoft & LS Retail Diamond Partner

Novasoft is a Microsoft Solutions Partner and LS Retail Diamond Partner serving customers across UAE, KSA and India.

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