Updating and testing Business Central

Updating and testing Business Central

As a Cloud solution, your Business Central is updated continuously and automatically. As ERP manager you must plan when the updates arrive, stay informed about the contents, test what matters for your operations, and clean up the customizations and apps you no longer need.

Updates are not optional in the Cloud

Previously you had to take the initiative to update the ERP solution yourself. Upgrading was extensive, and many ERP solutions therefore stood still for years. If you waited 7 years to upgrade, you missed out on all the innovation during those 7 years.

With Business Central as a Cloud solution, updates are not optional. You will be updated. It is a premise of Cloud you must accept.

Microsoft’s update cadence: three types of updates

Microsoft delivers three types of updates to Business Central:

The two major releases are the ones you need to watch most closely. The monthly minor updates are about bug fixes and are typically harmless for your operations.

The difference between Wave 1 and Wave 2

Microsoft calls the two major releases Wave 1 (April) and Wave 2 (October). They are to some degree an announcement of what Microsoft has on the drawing board. A large part of the functionality arrives immediately, but some of what is announced is only released later as optional features under Feature Management.

Once in a while Microsoft announces something that ends up being postponed. The new sales pricing structure is a notorious example. It has been announced in several release waves and has been postponed multiple times. As ERP manager you need to take Microsoft’s announcement timing with a grain of salt. Microsoft has a plan and would no doubt like to follow it, but there are many considerations at play, and reality doesn’t always end up looking like the plan.

How to plan the update

The update period for a major release is 5 months, and Microsoft sends out updates in batches over several weeks. Not everyone is updated at once.

In the admin center you can:

• see which date the update is scheduled for your environment
• set preferences for when you generally want updates to run
• move the timing if it turns out to be inconvenient

Microsoft knows not to update right before Black Friday, but they don’t know your company’s calendar. It is your responsibility to move the timing.

Your update strategy: first mover or wait and see

As ERP manager you need a strategy for how quickly you want your solution updated. Do you want to be a first mover, or do you want to wait as long as possible? It is a decision you should anchor with management, because it is about the company’s operational reliability and risk tolerance.

You can postpone Microsoft’s updates if you aren’t ready. You may need more testing, or you want to avoid an update coinciding with a busy period, a peak season, or an audit.

Notifications are part of your responsibility

An important part of your responsibility as ERP manager is keeping an eye on notifications from Microsoft. When you get notice that your environment will be updated on a specific date, you must decide whether the timing works or whether you need to push it.

How apps are updated relative to major releases

Apps are automatically upgraded along with major releases. Between the major releases you generally need to take the initiative yourself to update your apps if the vendors have released new versions. You can also choose to have apps updated automatically at every minor update.

What happens when you opt out of monthly updates

The monthly minor updates are optional. You can opt out of one or all monthly updates until the next major update brings you up-to-date with everything you have skipped.

If you opt out of the monthly updates, you also miss hotfixes and bug fixes along the way. It is a trade-off. You get peace of mind by postponing, but you also don’t benefit from the fixes Microsoft makes between the major releases.

Grace period and forced update

When the 5-month update period expires, a one-month grace period starts where you can no longer postpone.

When the grace period ends, Microsoft forces all updates through. If the update is blocked by incompatible apps or PTEs, these may be uninstalled to ensure that the update can complete. Data is not deleted in that situation, but you must reinstall a compatible version yourself afterward.

In the cloud version of Business Central you cannot postpone updates for many years and then take a big version jump. Updates are continuous and mandatory.

Feature Management: soft releases of new functionality

Most new features in Business Central are released directly with an update. Microsoft sometimes uses a softer rollout strategy where the new feature is made available as an opt-in for a period before becoming mandatory. That happens under Feature Management.

These soft releases are typically features that require more thorough testing or configuration.

How to turn on a feature switch

When Microsoft offers an optional new feature, you can choose to turn it on with a feature switch if you want to try it. At a later point the feature becomes part of the standard solution.

Test feature switches in a sandbox first

You should test feature switches in a sandbox before turning them on in production. Some feature switches cannot be turned off again once you have turned them on. That is the case when the feature changes the entire data model so that transactions are generated in a new way. Then you can’t go back to the old way. Be sure of your decision before turning it on in the production environment.

On the Feature Management page in Business Central you can keep an eye on which optional features are expected to become mandatory in the next major release.

When Microsoft announces that a feature is about to become mandatory, it doesn’t always mean it happens on the announced date. Many features stick to the plan, but some have been postponed so many times that we have lost count.

How to stay informed about new functionality

Make a fixed plan for how you stay informed. Most companies tie it to the cadence of major releases. Ahead of April and October you review what is on the way, take a position on Feature Management, and plan your testing effort. Write it into the calendar as a fixed task so it doesn’t drown in everyday work.

Use your partner and the Feature Management page

Get help from your partner to stay updated on Microsoft’s plans for major releases. Review the Feature Management page as part of your fixed preparation for major releases rather than looking at it randomly.

Use AI to get a quick overview

You can use AI to create a quick overview of the next major release. In the run-up to a major release in April or October, you can ask an AI chatbot: “What’s coming in the next version of Business Central, and is there anything relevant for a company focused on inventory and production?”

The more context you give, the better answer you get. If you have your own process descriptions, use them as the foundation when you ask. The chatbot can then compare what’s on the way from Microsoft with your company’s concrete processes. Ask which processes you should specifically test in advance.

It isn’t only Microsoft’s own documentation that sits on the internet. An active network of MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) write blog posts about new features. An AI search can aggregate across the sources and give you an overview in your preferred language, even though most of the original material is in English.

It doesn’t replace your partner’s advice, but it gives you a better starting point for asking the right questions.

Testing before an update: the ideal and the realistic

You should test updates in a sandbox before they hit the production environment. It is your responsibility as ERP manager to make sure that happens. Few companies do it consistently, though.

The proper recommendation is that you create a sandbox, run your critical processes through it, and verify that everything works before you accept the update in the production environment.

Prioritizing the testing effort

If you want to prioritize the effort, you can expect that there are rarely problems with the standard functionality from Microsoft. They test the standard solution thoroughly, and the risk is low. With apps there are slightly more possibilities for problems, but the professional app vendors test their apps against new versions in advance. The greatest risk lies in your own customizations (PTEs), because that is code you are responsible for maintaining and testing yourself.

How to test in a sandbox

Microsoft gives you good opportunities to test:

• 3 sandbox environments per production environment
• the option to upgrade a sandbox to a coming major release in preview, so you can start testing in good time

Some companies choose to perform the test in a test company in the production environment because it is easiest. That is a bad idea. An app changes the entire environment, so a bug affects both your test company and your operating company. Use a sandbox for testing.

The fallback advice if you don’t test: know your business

Few companies test in a sandbox ahead of every update. It is like with exercise. Everyone agrees it is a good idea, but it doesn’t always happen in practice.

The next best advice if you don’t get the testing done is to know your business. Make sure you have a good knowledge of which processes run in your Business Central. If you know that the sales department uses a special customization for price calculation, or that the warehouse depends on a particular app for lot management, you are far better equipped to react quickly if a problem arises.

You are also better prepared to prioritize the testing effort on the most important changes, so that you don’t test for the sake of testing, but focus on the critical processes.

How big the risk really is

Experience shows that Microsoft rarely changes the functionality so much from one version to the next that you can’t continue working. What you could do yesterday, you can also do today. A button may have been moved or renamed, or a new feature has shown up that you didn’t ask for. It is annoying if it comes as a surprise, but it is rarely critical for operations.

If you don’t test, keep an overview of your company’s processes, familiarize yourself with the contents of upcoming updates, and assess whether there are potential conflicts.

Page Scripting: systematized testing of critical processes

A clever tool in Business Central is Page Scripting. It is relevant if you want to make your testing more systematic and easier to repeat.

You can record your critical work processes directly in Business Central, for example creating a sales order, adding three item lines, applying a lot number, and creating a pick document. You can then play back the process.

How to use Page Scripting in connection with updates

When a new update arrives, you can install the coming version in a sandbox environment and play back the recorded processes. You can see whether they work or fail, without having to perform the test manually.

The advantages of scripted testing

Page Scripting provides:

• consistent testing from time to time (the machine plays back the processes the same way each time)
• the option of validation steps that check whether a specific field has the expected value
• the option to edit the recording, move steps around, and insert new ones if the process changes

Page Scripting captures a lot but not everything. It is much easier than manual testing.

What can go wrong at an update

Apps from Microsoft Marketplace have become popular to use. When a major release arrives, errors in third-party apps are actually the most common source of problems. It is a pattern support staff are well familiar with. When Microsoft updates a batch of customers, you suddenly see a trend in support requests because the same app has a conflict with the new version.

What the app vendors should deliver

Microsoft technically validates that apps on Marketplace are compatible with the new version, and an app vendor is obligated to ensure this. But you can’t test everything, and an app may be approved and still have a bug that only shows up in practice. If you have several apps installed, they also need to work with each other, and nobody has tested that for you.

When you choose apps, ask the vendor about their policy for compatibility:

• how do they test against new versions
• how quickly do they react if problems arise
• how long after a major release do they guarantee compatibility

The more critical an app is for your operations, the more important it is to know what you can expect from your vendor.

Compatibility check of your own PTEs

For your own customizations Microsoft automatically runs a compatibility check ahead of an update. In the admin center you can check compatibility for your installed apps and PTEs in compatibility reports for upcoming versions.

Get help from your partner to keep an eye on whether anything fails in Microsoft’s test, so you can fix it before the update. Make sure you have an overview of which apps and PTEs you have installed, and have a list of who to contact if something reports an error.

Revisit your extensions: are they still needed

If you are revisiting everything ahead of an update anyway, it is a good time to ask another question: do you still need all your extensions? That applies both to customizations (PTEs) and apps from Microsoft Marketplace.

Business Central evolves continuously. If your customization was developed two or three years ago, it is not unusual that Microsoft has since added new standard functionality that covers the same need.

If you aren’t aware of it, you are paying for maintenance of a PTE you no longer need, and you make your updates more complicated than necessary. Each PTE is an additional component that must be tested and maintained at every major release.

Administering PTEs from the admin center

Since 2024 Microsoft has made it possible to administer PTEs directly from the admin center. You can:

• see installed PTEs
• upload new versions
• uninstall PTEs the same way as Marketplace apps

That makes the technical administration easier. The admin center doesn’t tell you what a PTE does or whether you still need it. That assessment requires that you know the business processes the PTE supports, and that you get help from your ERP partner to see whether a new standard feature can take over.

The initiative to retire PTEs must come from you

Your partner rarely suggests retiring a PTE they have built and maintain for you on their own initiative. The initiative must come from you.

A good practice is to agree on a semi-annual update review with your ERP partner. A fixed meeting where you go through your installed apps and PTEs, assess compatibility with upcoming versions, and decide whether anything can be retired. That is a task you may rightly demand of your partner.