About one month before a major update, you can try out new functionality in preview environments. Preview environments are Business Central online sandbox environments that you create on a preview version of the application. When you create the new sandbox environment, choose the preview version marked as (Preview) from the version list. This way, you get a new sandbox environment with a preview version of the application.

Review the new functionality. Try it out, and begin training employees on the new features that are coming.

Validate your extensions.

Upload and install your extensions into the sandbox environments created on the preview version and run through the functionality. Verify that the customization continues to work and is compatible with the new version.

In rare cases, if you discover any changes required for your per-tenant extension to become compatible with the next release, apply the changes to your app, test it again on a sandbox environment running on a preview version. Then, if tests complete successfully, upload the app into your production environment, setting the Deploy to field to Next major version. This way, the compatible version of your app will be used when you schedule the upgrade of your production environment to the new major update once it becomes available.

Test the quality. If you run into issues related to the preview, please provide feedback on Collaborate.