The Expense Agent processes employee expense claims, including receipts, mileage, VAT and duplicate checks, and BC29 added AI-assisted approvals. It is still in public preview. What it does well, what to wait for, who should pilot it now and who should not.
Expense claims are the process everyone hates: employees photographing crumpled receipts, finance chasing missing VAT, managers approving things they haven't looked at. The Expense Agent is Microsoft's answer, and it's in public preview in Business Central 29, with AI-driven approvals and more countries and languages added in that release.
What it does
Reads receipts uploaded by employees and extracts the amount, date, merchant and VAT.
Handles mileage claims.
Applies VAT and, where relevant, withholding tax.
Checks for duplicates (the same receipt submitted twice).
Routes claims for approval, with AI-assisted approval suggestions in version 29.
What "public preview" means
Preview features are there to try, not to run your business on. They can change, they may not be supported to the same standard as generally available features, and they may not be available in every country or language. Microsoft says what each preview covers in the feature documentation; read it before you start. Pricing in preview can also differ from general availability, so don't build a business case on preview costs.
Who should pilot it now
Businesses with a moderate volume of claims (dozens or hundreds a month, not five).
Finance teams with a sandbox and someone with time to test properly.
Organisations with a simple expense policy: standard categories, clear limits.
Anyone who wants to be ready the moment it becomes generally available.
Who should wait
Businesses with complex policies: multiple currencies, per-diems, complex reclaim rules, project recharging. Wait until it's generally available and the documentation covers your case.
Anyone already happy with a dedicated expenses app integrated with Business Central.
Anyone without a sandbox to test in.
How to pilot it
Enable it in a sandbox copy of production (use a sandbox).
Write your expense policy down: categories, limits, VAT treatment, approval rules. If it isn't written, the agent can't follow it.
Run a month of real (anonymised if needed) claims through it alongside the current process.
Compare: accuracy of extraction, VAT treatment, duplicates caught, time saved.
Decide whether to go live at general availability.
Expense data is personal data (where people went, when, with whom), so the pilot needs the same data protection thinking as production (see AI and data protection).
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