Business Central Expense Agent in 2026 Release Wave 2: Credit Card Feeds, AI Policies and More

The Business Central Expense Agent gets one of its biggest updates yet in the 2026 release wave 2. Credit card feeds, AI-driven expense policies, travel requests, a new mobile app and better approvals all arrive over the next few months, turning the agent into a much more complete expense management tool.

Microsoft’s Business Central team walked through the highlights in a launch video, embedded below. Here is our summary of what is new, when it arrives, and what it means for your finance team.

Good to know: According to Microsoft, the features roll out gradually between October and December. Credit card feeds arrive in December with version 29.2, and the new mobile app is currently in preview.

Wider Availability and New Languages

The Expense Agent now has a refreshed user experience that shows what you can do before you even start. Microsoft is adding six more languages (Czech, Dutch, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish) on top of the five already supported. More importantly, starting in October Microsoft begins enabling the Expense Agent worldwide, country by country, over the following months.

Smarter Mileage Handling

Mileage started out simple: one rate, per mile or per kilometer. Based on customer feedback, you can now set up:

• Mileage rate periods, so a new rate can take effect from a specific date. The agent picks the right rate based on the expense date.
• Rates per vehicle type, such as car, truck, SUV or motorcycle, which is a legal requirement in some countries.

If you don’t need either, the simple setup still works exactly as before.

Credit Card Feeds, at Last

Microsoft describes credit card feeds as the feature almost every customer and partner has been waiting for. In this first release, arriving in December, you upload your credit card statement manually. Business Central stores the imported lines as records, then automatically reconciles them with your expenses. It works both ways:

• Card statement first: if receipts haven’t been scanned yet, the agent creates an expense for each card line. Employees attach the receipt later, and an expense can’t be submitted without one.
• Receipt first: if employees scan receipts as they go, the expenses already exist, and the card lines are matched to them when the statement is uploaded.

AI-Driven Travel and Expense Policies

This is the most “agentic” new feature. For each expense category you can write your company’s rules as plain-language policies, often simply copied from your existing travel and expense policy. The agent then checks every expense against them.

In Microsoft’s example, the airline category has three policies: which class you can book, when upgrades are allowed, and rules for private aircraft. When a flight receipt didn’t state the class, the agent flagged it and asked the employee for a justification.

Two points worth knowing: policy compliance has to be switched on deliberately, because the AI checks can add cost, and a flag is not a hard block. The approver still decides, with better information to do it.

Better Approvals and New Travel Requests

The approval process gets a significant upgrade, with an enhanced approval history, interim approvers, approval limits, and alternate and delegate approvers.

Brand new are travel requests. Before a trip, such as a conference, an employee submits a request with the budget, dates and justification. Once the manager approves it, Business Central automatically creates an expense report for that trip, and receipts from the trip are assigned to it automatically. No more trip costs scattered across monthly expense reports.

A New Mobile App (Preview)

A new Expense Agent mobile app for iPhone and Android is available in preview for testing. Employees scan receipts with their phone camera, the app automatically crops the receipt from the background, and it works offline. Receipts scanned without a connection are processed as soon as the phone is back online.

Compliance: VAT Reclaim and Withholding Tax

Two compliance features round out the release, both mainly relevant outside the US:

• VAT reclaim on expense reports. When enabled, the agent reads domestic VAT from receipts and builds a VAT specification for each expense line, with several rates per line where needed (a hotel bill with different rates for the room and breakfast, for example). Because the rules vary so much by country, an accountant still reviews it before posting. Posting then creates G/L and VAT entries using your normal VAT posting groups.
• Withholding tax for employees. Withholding tax, previously available for vendors, now extends to employee expense reports for allowances above a configured threshold, using withholding posting groups on employees and expense categories.

NAV SEAL’s Take: Is It Time to Look at the Expense Agent?

Until now, many companies found the Expense Agent promising but not quite complete. With credit card feeds, travel requests and stronger approvals, that changes. A few practical points:

• Credit cards are the deciding feature. If company cards drive most of your expenses, plan your evaluation around the December release, when card feeds arrive.
• Get your written policy ready. The AI policy checks are only as good as the rules you give them. Clear, specific policy wording per category gives the best results.
• Use rate periods for mileage. If your reimbursement rate changes each year, rate periods mean no more manual updates on January 1.
• Weigh the AI cost. Policy compliance is opt-in because it can add cost. Decide where it adds real value, for example on travel categories.
• Pilot the mobile app with a small group while it is in preview, so you are ready to roll it out when it becomes generally available.

Microsoft has published a full Expense Agent playlist with deeper sessions on mileage, approvals, travel requests and the mobile app. For more on AI in Business Central, see our Copilot & AI articles, including our look at the new Business Central MCP server.