A Guide to the Native Quality Management Module in Business Central 2026
At a Glance
Business Central 2026 introduces native Quality Management capabilities that help manufacturers standardise inspections across purchasing, production and warehousing. By using inspection templates, automated workflows and lot tracking, businesses can improve quality control, strengthen traceability, manage non-conforming products more effectively and maintain consistent quality records within a single ERP system.
Find out how you can use quality control in Business Central for your manufacturing business. Get in touch with our team today.
How to Use Quality Control in Dynamics Business Central
Quality-related problems can be expensive, whether it’s a failed component that interrupts production or a defective product that reaches a customer. In 2026, many manufacturers still record inspections on paper and store them in spreadsheets. Many also rely on standalone quality control systems that don’t effectively integrate with production and inventory.
With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 release wave 1 introducing the Quality Management extension, manufacturers gain a more structured approach to quality control.
Instead of treating quality as an isolated task after production, your manufacturing business can place inspections at key points throughout the movement and manufacture of goods.
Business Central’s new quality control capabilities will not replace every specialist quality management system. However, they can give many small- and mid-sized manufacturers a valuable starting point for standardising inspections, controlling failed products and keeping quality information visible and recorded.
Read our guide to learn how quality management works in Business Central and how manufacturers can use it to strengthen quality control.
What Is Quality Management in Business Central?
Quality Management in Business Central is a Microsoft-published extension introduced with the 2026 release wave 1. This extension allows businesses to create and complete quality inspections as goods move through purchasing, manufacturing, assembly and warehouse processes.
It can generate inspections at predefined points in your operations. You can create an inspection when:
- You receive raw materials from a particular supplier
- A production or assembly output is posted
- An item matching defined criteria is received or processed
- Inventory passes through a warehouse process
- Your employee identifies a possible quality concern
- A scheduled inspection is due
Through inspection templates, you can define what needs to be checked. You can include questions, measurements and acceptable value ranges to determine whether an inspection passes or fails.
This extension helps replace or supplement inconsistent or manual inspection records with a more structured, repeatable process.
Understanding the Native Quality Control Features
Business Central’s native quality management extension includes multiple features for creating, completing and acting on inspections.
Inspection Templates
Using templates, manufacturers can define the information an inspection needs to collect, including dimensions, tolerances, temperature, weight, pass-or-fail questions and numerical test results. You can create separate templates for different products, suppliers, work centres or inspection stages.
These templates can include expected values and acceptable ranges to determine whether the outcome is a pass or a fail.
Inspection Generation Rules
These rules determine when to use a template. Your business can configure rules such as:
- Inspect every delivery from a new supplier
- Apply additional checks to a high-risk product
- Inspect receipts based on defined supplier, item or transaction data
Automatic, Manual and Scheduled Inspections
Business Central can support many inspection scenarios. Automatic inspections can be triggered after a specific activity, such as posting a purchase receipt. You can create manual inspections when there’s an unexpected issue. You can also generate scheduled inspections through job queues for products that need periodic checks.
Lot Blocking
Quality management integrates with Business Central workflows to trigger actions when an inspection reaches a specific result.
For example, a failed inspection can start actions or workflows such as blocking an affected lot, notifying relevant employees and moving stock to an inspection or quarantine area.
How Business Central Supports Manufacturing Quality Control
Quality control in manufacturing is most effective when it is integrated into the production process rather than recorded afterwards.
With Business Central, you can link manufacturing data with production orders, items, routings, work centres, inventory movements and lot or serial tracking. This allows manufacturers to arrange checks around production output and connect the results with the item or tracked lot being assessed. It makes it easier to understand what was produced, where it was produced and whether it satisfies the defined quality requirements.
Production quality features require a Business Central Premium subscription.
Here’s how BC supports quality control in manufacturing:
Create Inspection and Testing Processes
Begin the inspection by defining exactly what needs to be tested, when it must occur and what constitutes an acceptable result. Using templates and generation rules, you can build processes around your products and production methods.
If you produce machined components, you can perform one inspection after machining and another after surface treatment.
Manage Non-Conforming Products and Corrective Action
BC can support the handling of non-compliant items through manual actions and automated workflows. This can help clearly separate acceptable and questionable stock and provide a shared record of the inspection outcome.
Report on Quality Performance Across Production
Instead of using separate paper forms or departmental spreadsheets, digital inspection recording can help quality and production managers identify patterns. Use this information alongside Business Central’s wider operational data to help your business reduce repeat failures and improve production performance.
Partner with Brookland Solutions to Optimise Quality Control
Installing a quality management extension alone isn’t enough. You need to design templates, inspection rules, tolerances, workflows, permissions, item tracking, and warehouse control around how your manufacturing business operates.
At Brookland Solutions, we help manufacturers evaluate and configure Business Central quality management around their operational requirements.
Specialising in Business Central, our Microsoft-certified consultants focus on creating processes that your teams can follow consistently and managers can use to make better decisions. This means ensuring that important quality risks receive the appropriate level of control. If needed, we can also help you enrich your Business Central manufacturing experience with Empowered Business Central for Manufacturing.
Whether you’re looking to replace fragmented quality records or improve production traceability, we can help you build a quality control approach that supports your manufacturing operations.
Explore how Business Central’s quality management features can support your manufacturing operations. Get in touch with us today to book a consultation.
