Microsoft Business Central receives major feature updates twice each year. Before updating a production environment, organizations should test new releases in a sandbox environment to verify that business processes, customizations, and integrations continue to function correctly.

A successful testing process helps identify issues early and minimizes disruptions when updates are deployed.

Why update testing matters

A sandbox environment provides a safe place to test new Business Central releases before they are applied to production. Update testing helps ensure:

• Critical business processes continue to operate as expected.
• Customizations remain functional.
• Third-party extensions work correctly.
• Integrations and workflows are not impacted by the update.

Update testing best practices

To improve testing results:

• Test as thoroughly as possible.
• Track testing activities in a centralized location.
• Validate every customization and extension.
• Capture screenshots of any issues discovered.
• Begin testing as soon as updates become available.
• Involve multiple team members when possible.
• Work with your implementation partner if additional support is needed.

Reviewing extensions before testing

Before starting validation, review all installed extensions within Business Central. A useful approach is to:

1. Open Extension Management.
2. Filter for extensions not published by Microsoft.
3. Document each extension.
4. Add extension-specific tests to your testing plan.

This helps ensure custom functionality is not overlooked during testing.

Testing business processes

Testing should focus on both standard functionality and any customized areas of the system. Common areas to validate include:

• Customer creation and maintenance
• Sales quotes and sales orders
• Purchase transactions
• Posted documents
• Document attachments
• Inventory processes
• Reporting
• Excel exports and Edit in Excel functionality
• User personalizations and custom fields

The objective is to confirm that customizations and extensions continue to function properly after the update.

Pay special attention to banking

Banking processes are among the most important areas to test. Consider validating:

• Bank statement processing
• Credit card transactions
• EFT payments
• ACH transactions
• Check printing
• Other banking-related workflows

Because these processes involve financial transactions, even minor issues can have a significant impact on operations.

Using testing templates

The session highlights several testing resources that can help organizations organize their update projects, including:

• Simple checklists for smaller teams
• Excel-based tracking workbooks
• Detailed testing templates with assignment and status tracking
• Dashboard-style reporting tools

These resources can be customized to match each organization's unique requirements.

Managing test results

When documenting testing activities:

• Record the version being tested.
• Track completion status.
• Identify issues and exceptions.
• Add notes and screenshots.
• Assign responsibilities to team members.
• Retain historical testing records for future updates.

Keeping detailed records helps streamline future testing cycles and provides visibility into recurring issues.

Key takeaways

• Always test Business Central updates in a sandbox environment before updating production.
• Review and validate all customizations and non-Microsoft extensions.
• Document testing activities and findings.
• Pay special attention to banking, integrations, and custom processes.
• Use structured testing templates to improve organization and visibility.
• Maintain historical testing records to support future update cycles.