Business trips, fuel, business meals, office supplies, per diems – every company knows this scenario. An employee returns from a trip, digs through their wallet looking for a receipt, tries to reconstruct the route from memory, and then manually enters the data into a spreadsheet or a form in the system. The finance team, in turn, verifies and categorizes the expenses, follows up on missing information, and posts everything manually. Sound familiar? This is exactly the problem the new functionality in Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to solve.
What Is Expense Agent and How Does It Work?
Expense Agent is an AI-powered agent built directly into the Business Central ecosystem. Its purpose is simple to describe, although technologically complex: it automatically collects, categorizes, and prepares expense reports so that employees only need to review and approve the completed result.
In practice, it works like this: an employee takes a photo of a receipt with their phone and submits it by email or through a dedicated web app. The agent automatically extracts the relevant data from the document – the amount, currency, date, and expense category. Based on this information, it creates an item in the expense report. If a report already exists, the expense is added automatically. If not, the agent creates a new report.
Importantly, Expense Agent is not limited to receipts alone. It can also handle mileage, per diem allowances, expenses paid with a corporate card, and even project-related costs, which can be automatically posted to the appropriate accounts and recharged to customers.
Designed for People Who Don’t Know ERP Systems
This is probably one of the most interesting aspects of the entire solution. Previous AI agents in Business Central were designed for people who work with ERP systems on a daily basis – users who know the interface, understand where to find specific functions, and are familiar with the underlying data structure. Expense Agent takes a completely different approach.
Its main target group consists of employees who do not normally interact with an ERP system at all – field service technicians, drivers, sales representatives on the road, technical staff, or office employees who occasionally need to submit a small business expense. These users should not need to understand accounting structures in order to submit an expense report correctly.
That is why Expense Agent meets users where they already work. It can be accessed through a dedicated web application –without having Business Central installed – through Outlook, and in the future also through Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Importantly, submitting expense reports does not require a Business Central license. Instead, Microsoft has introduced a Copilot Credits-based pricing model, meaning organizations pay based on actual usage rather than purchasing an additional user license.
AI at the Core, Not as an Add-On
It is worth noting the approach Microsoft has taken when developing this solution. Expense Agent is not simply another AI layer added on top of an existing feature – Business Central previously did not have a native expense management module at all. The entire functionality has been designed from scratch with artificial intelligence as a central component.
Microsoft emphasizes that the solution was developed using a model-driven and evaluation-driven approach, based on continuous model improvement and quality validation. The agent is deeply integrated with Business Central’s financial modules, which means that expenses can be validated against company policies and regulatory requirements in the background, without requiring additional involvement from the user.
At the same time, the agent’s level of autonomy is configurable. Each organization can decide how much independence to give it – whether it should categorize expenses and complete reports automatically, or simply provide suggestions while a human approves each step. This is particularly important for companies with strict internal control procedures and reflects the growing trend of using AI and Business Intelligence in everyday business processes.
Availability – For Now in the US, but This Is Just the Beginning
Expense Agent is currently available in private preview. Public Preview starts on May 8, 2026, as part of Release Wave 1, initially only in English and for the US market.
Expansion to additional languages and countries is planned from July 2026 onwards. Microsoft has indicated that Public Preview will not be a one-off release, but rather an ongoing process. New features, support for additional regions, and new end-to-end scenarios will be introduced progressively throughout the year.
For Polish companies using Business Central, this means that Expense Agent is likely to become available in our region later this year. It is therefore worth taking a closer look at the functionality now and considering how it could fit into existing expense management processes – particularly in companies with distributed field teams, where expense settlements are often especially time-consuming.
Why This Is an Important Step for Business Central
Expense Agent is not just another “nice AI feature” added for show. It is a clear indication of where the entire Business Central ecosystem is heading – toward agents that take over specific, repetitive business processes and execute them autonomously, with people acting as supervisors rather than operators.
For companies already using Business Central, this creates the prospect of significantly reducing the workload of finance and administrative teams. Instead of spending hours manually entering data from receipts – automated processing. Instead of emails asking, “Which category should this be assigned to?” – intelligent categorization. Instead of delayed reimbursements – a faster and more standardized process.
If you are looking for more information about the latest changes in Business Central, read our article on new financial features in Business Central 2026.
Want to See AI in Action in Your Company?
As a certified Microsoft partner specializing in Dynamics 365 Business Central implementations, we closely follow every new feature and assess its real-world potential for our clients. Expense Agent is one of the solutions that, once it becomes available in Poland, we will be able to help implement and configure to match the specific needs of your organization.
If you would like to discuss how AI agents could be used in your ERP system, or you are simply wondering whether Business Central is the right solution for your company, contact us. We will be happy to share our experience and help you assess which new features could deliver real value to your business.
Source: Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Introducing Expense Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central (Aleksandar Totovic, Principal Product Manager).
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is Expense Agent in Business Central?
Expense Agent is an AI agent built into Dynamics 365 Business Central that automatically extracts data from receipts and invoices, categorizes expenses, and creates ready-to-review expense reports. Employees only need to review and approve the prepared report – the agent handles most of the work.
Do I need a Business Central license to use Expense Agent?
No. Employees submitting expense reports through the dedicated web app or Outlook do not need a Business Central license. Usage is billed through the Copilot Credits model, meaning organizations pay based on the agent’s actual usage.
When will Expense Agent be available in Poland?
Public Preview starts on May 8, 2026, initially only in the United States and in English. Microsoft plans to expand availability to additional countries and languages from July 2026 onwards, so Expense Agent may become available in Poland later this year.
What types of expenses does Expense Agent support?
The agent supports expenses documented with receipts and invoices, mileage, per diem allowances, expenses paid by corporate card or cash, as well as project-related costs that can be automatically recharged to customers.
Can I control how much autonomy the agent has?
Yes. The level of autonomy of Expense Agent can be configured. An organization can decide whether the agent should automatically complete expense reports or only suggest categories and amounts for manual review and approval by the employee.
Marketing Manager at IT Vision with five years of experience in the B2B sector and the technology industry. Author of content on ERP and CRM systems, artificial intelligence, automation, and the digital transformation of businesses.
