PHOENIX, AZ – September 2, 2026 – Microsoft’s public preview period for Dynamics 365 Business Central runs every March and September, the months before a new major update is released, according to Microsoft’s published documentation. Tigunia, a Microsoft Solutions Partner, has set out five questions for finance and operations teams to work through during the September period.
“Microsoft runs the technical compatibility check on per-tenant extensions running in production and documents what it covers,” said Christopher Brock, director of sales at Tigunia. “We plan the functional side with clients inside the same preview window, starting with whether month-end close still behaves on the new version.”
What Microsoft’s automated check covers
Microsoft states that Business Central automatically tests per-tenant extensions running in production for technical incompatibility with an upcoming release, and notifies notification recipients where it detects any. Marketplace apps follow a separate track, and Microsoft notes that incompatibilities with them might not be visible in the customer’s Business Central administration center.
Taken together, Microsoft’s documentation points to two further validation responsibilities beyond that check. The publisher owns the extension: Microsoft tests code based on technical compatibility, and as the publisher, you remain responsible for all functional and logical validation. Microsoft describes publishers as the developers who bring apps to its Marketplace and the resellers who provide per-tenant extensions. Separately, Microsoft recommends customers test their own critical business scenarios before production environments are updated. Neither substitutes for the other.
Two preview paths, and what each one tests
Microsoft documents two ways to obtain a preview environment, and they suit different tests. A newly created one is clean, without customer data, setup or customizations, though Microsoft states teams can still upload and install extensions into it and run through the functionality. Updating an existing sandbox instead produces an environment that might include existing data, setup and customizations, and allows the update itself to be tested with extensions installed.
For business scenario testing, one production-derived option Microsoft documents is updating a sandbox copy of production, which enables reviews with that environment’s data, setup and customizations. Microsoft’s copy documentation adds limits worth planning around. A copied environment has base application integration settings cleared, job queue tasks stopped, webhooks and service connections disabled, and outbound HTTP calls blocked until approved per extension. Sandboxes also run in a different performance tier and are not reliable for benchmarking. Preview environments are deleted 30 days after general availability.
Where September sits in the update cycle
September also closes the previous cycle for environments still on the version released in April. Microsoft’s update 28.0 documentation states that update could be scheduled to any date within the five-month update period, which ends on Aug. 31, 2026, after which a one-month grace period runs through September. The enforced update period begins when the grace period ends, placing it after September. In that period, extensions causing an update to fail may be automatically uninstalled so the update can proceed. Microsoft states the data is not deleted and can be recovered by installing a compatible extension version.
Five questions for the preview period
1. Who is listed as a notification recipient in the Business Central administration center, and does that address reach someone who acts on it?
2. Which extensions are per-tenant extensions, and which came from Marketplace? The automated check covers the first group, and incompatibilities in the second may not surface in the administration center.
3. For each per-tenant extension, who is the publisher carrying the functional and logical validation, and have they confirmed a compatible version?
4. Which business scenarios does the team call critical? Month-end close, bank reconciliation, tax calculation, consolidations and the integrations that exchange data with the environment are examples for consideration.
5. Does the preview environment match the question being asked? A clean preview suits checking that an extension installs and runs. A sandbox copy of production suits scenario testing against real data and setup, once the job queue tasks, integrations, connections and webhooks that the copy stops, disables or clears have been reconfigured, and outbound HTTP calls approved per extension.
Further detail on the platform is on Tigunia’s Business Central solutions page.
About Tigunia
Tigunia is a Microsoft Solutions Partner with offices in Phoenix, Arizona; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Edmond, Oklahoma. The company implements, upgrades, and supports Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (previously Dynamics NAV) for mid-market organizations across a range of industries, including accounting and professional services, distribution and warehousing, nonprofit, field services, manufacturing, retail and ecommerce, and transportation. Services include implementation, project rescue, upgrades from NAV, earlier versions of Business Central, and Sage, along with custom development, training, and ongoing support.
Media ContactCompany Name: TiguniaContact Person: Natasha BandoquilloEmail: Send EmailPhone: (866) 562-8911Address:2375 East Camelback Road, Ste. 600 City: PhoenixState: ArizonaCountry: United StatesWebsite: https://tigunia.com/
