Business Central Expense Agent Lost Receipt Workflow: Policy Caps, Compliance Flags and 2026 Preview

What the roadmap says​

The roadmap entry covers Dynamics 365 Business Central on the web, in the Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) cloud. It describes a guided process that:

• Walks the employee through the information needed to support the expense.
• Generates supporting documentation from those details.
• Lets the reimbursement process continue without the employee building replacement paperwork by hand.

Microsoft's stated benefits are less manual effort and a more consistent lost-receipt process for employees and finance teams. The roadmap does not say which questions the agent will ask, what the generated document will look like, or whether approvals work differently for these expenses.

A public code change shows how it may work​

Microsoft's public BCApps repository on GitHub has a pull request titled "Lost receipt workflow and document creation (November '26)". It shows more detail than the roadmap does. This is a work-in-progress design, not official documentation, so treat it as a preview of intent. Details could change before release.

Here is what the pull request describes:

• A replacement document, clearly labeled. "Lost Receipt" is described as a replacement proof document, not a real receipt, and it must be clearly labeled.
• Off by default. A policy setting called Allow Lost Receipt defaults to Off, and when it is off, users cannot mark expenses as lost receipt. Expense creation then still enforces the receipt attachment requirement.
• Spending caps. The policy is meant to allow a maximum amount for lost-receipt expenses, per expense, per period, or both.
• A built-in flag. Lost-receipt expenses are automatically assigned a compliance status of Non-Compliant.
• Credit cost. The notes say creation is counted the same way at 25 credits, because the system auto-creates the lost-receipt document instead of extracting data from a receipt. That figure is a design note, not published pricing.

For comparison, Microsoft Learn currently documents that Expense Agent uses Copilot Credits and that one receipt costs 50 Copilot Credits to process. Learn does not yet say how lost-receipt expenses will be billed. Administrators should wait for Microsoft's final documentation before budgeting around either figure.

How it fits today's Expense Agent​

Today's flow is built around receipts. Employees upload a file or email it to a monitored mailbox, and the agent extracts the data. That includes merchant, date, amount, currency, and line items, and the agent suggests categories. The agent then groups expenses into draft reports. Users must review the data before submitting. Microsoft Learn says the supported upload formats are JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, HEIC, HEIF, and PDF, up to 10 MB. Handwritten receipts are accepted.

Microsoft's launch blog describes the audience as people who aren't ERP users: field workers, drivers, technicians, and travelers. Employees don't need a Business Central license to submit expenses outside Business Central, and usage is metered through Copilot Credits. Microsoft also says organizations can configure how much autonomy the agent has.

Learn also says all financial data, audit trails, and posting logic stay in Business Central, so existing rules, permissions, and workflows still apply. Policy checks already flag problems such as missing required fields, amounts over policy limits, and missing justifications. A lost-receipt path would fit into that system. It is not an exemption from it.

What admins and finance teams should weigh​

• Expect it to be opt-in. If the pull request's default holds, finance teams would have to turn the policy on deliberately.
• Expect friction by design. A Non-Compliant flag, a clear label, and spending caps suggest Microsoft wants lost receipts documented and visible. The aim is not to make them invisible.
• Check your own rules. Whether a generated declaration is acceptable depends on your auditors, tax rules, and company policy, and Microsoft's material doesn't address that. For VAT reclaim, Learn says an accountant must review and approve each reclaim before an expense report is posted. Whether lost-receipt expenses will qualify is not stated.
• Keep human review. Learn is explicit that users must validate AI-extracted data. The same discipline is sensible for any generated lost-receipt statement.
• Plan for gaps. Today's agent is documented as validated for English (EN-US) only, though other languages can be used. Regional availability for this feature is not stated.

Open questions​

• Which details the guided process will collect.
• Whether approvers will see the lost-receipt reason and how they can act on it.
• Whether the roadmap's December 2026 preview date holds.
• Whether the credit charge matches the pull request's 25 credits.

The practical takeaway is that this is a planned feature, not a loophole. It's a controlled way to record the missing-receipt case, and the evidence suggests it will be switched off until finance enables it.