Acumatica 2026 R2: What Stood Out to Us
Acumatica’s latest launch event gave us a first look at what’s coming next and where the platform is headed. Polaris had team members attend sessions across Construction, Manufacturing, Platform, Distribution, and General Business, giving us the opportunity to see the new features and enhancements from several different perspectives.
While each session focused on the needs of a specific industry or area of the product, there were some common themes throughout—particularly around AI, automation, better access to data, and reducing manual work. We’ve pulled together some of the highlights that stood out to us and the updates we think will be most interesting to Acumatica users.
Distribution – Liyi
The Distribution session focused on improvements to the day-to-day order fulfillment process, particularly around inventory availability, order promising, warehouse picking, and shipping.
Two updates I’m most interested in are the new Available-to-Promise (ATP) functionality and the enhanced picking functionality.
- ATP provides a more accurate view of projected supply and demand at the order-line level and can identify the earliest date the full quantity can be shipped, giving sales and customer service teams better information when committing to customer orders.
- The picking enhancements offer more flexibility in how warehouse quantities are picked, including unit-by-unit scanning, manual quantity entry, and automatic allocation of pallet, case, and each quantity across bulk, case-pick, and fast-pick zones.
While these enhancements for distribution would be helpful for more complex inventory and warehouse operations, I don’t currently see a major impact for our existing clients. However, these capabilities could be valuable when evaluating Acumatica for future distribution prospects with more sophisticated inventory planning and warehouse processes.
Platform – Sihui
A few updates really stood out to me. I’m especially looking forward to the ability to default branches from Projects, which can simplify project workflows and potentially eliminate the need for customizations we previously had to build for this functionality.
I also really like the new grouped view for Generic Inquiries, as users can now group and analyze data directly in Acumatica instead of exporting it and working with it separately.
The ability to reclassify project transactions should also make correcting project-related entries much easier. Lastly, I’m excited about the new AI agents and the potential they have to automate more processes and make everyday work easier for our clients.
Construction – Raj
Parent-Child Projects & Roll Up Project Transactions: Acumatica 2026 R2 introduces new capabilities for managing parent-child project structures and rolling up transactions from child projects to a parent project. This should make it easier to manage large projects with multiple phases, locations, or scopes to maintain detailed project-level tracking while still getting a consolidated financial view. I’m particularly looking forward to the ability to automate transaction rollups while maintaining the underlying transaction detail.
Project Cost by Spread: Acumatica 2026 R2 provides enhanced visibility into project costs over time through the Project Cost Spread by Month functionality. Project teams can compare baseline, projected, and actual costs by month, adjust future projections, and analyze cost-to-complete and variances using different S-curve approaches such as front-loaded, back-loaded, bell, or linear. This can improve time-phased project forecasting and help better understand how actual spending is tracking against expectations.
Project AI & Recommendations: Acumatica continues to expand embedded AI capabilities in 2026 R2, including AI-assisted analysis and anomaly detection that can help identify unusual project costs or patterns. I’m most interested in how these capabilities can move project management beyond simply reporting what happened toward proactively identifying potential cost issues and areas that may require attention.
General Business Edition: Put AI to Work Across Finance and CRM – Katie
One of the biggest things that stood out for me was how much easier Acumatica is making it to use the data you already have. During the General Business Edition: Put AI to Work Across Finance and CRM session, they demonstrated how AI can work across your company’s financial data to answer questions without having to go into several different areas, run multiple reports, and then copy and paste everything together to analyze it.
Acumatica’s Financial MCP Server can give approved AI tools read-only access to live Acumatica data through defined inquiries, so you can ask questions using the AI tools you already work with and get answers based on your ERP data.
The server is inactive by default, and companies decide when to turn it on and what data is available. Combined with Acumatica’s own AI Assistant, this has the potential to make financial information much more accessible, giving users a faster way to find answers, spot trends, and understand what is happening across the business without spending so much time gathering the data first.
Manufacturing – Dani
With the launch of 26R2, Acumatica’s Manufacturing Edition introduces powerful new capabilities to the Shop Floor Kiosk, transforming it into an all-in-one production hub. Moving beyond basic labor and quantity reporting, the updated Kiosk allows users to handle complex inventory and production tasks without running back to a desk.
Operators can now issue materials, substitute alternate parts on the fly, capture critical lot and serial attributes, and correct errors on previously reported work, all without leaving the Kiosk. These enhancements help bridge the gap between shopfloor and backend inventory control; greatly improving data accuracy by shifting vital record-keeping directly to the employees closest to the work.
Data Warehouse – Todd
One of the highlights from the Platform session was the introduction of Data Warehousing for Generic Inquiries. If you’ve ever had to wait for a large report or dashboard to load, this is an improvement worth noting. Instead of having Acumatica pull and calculate the same information every time you open a Generic Inquiry, the system can now store the results and retrieve them much faster.
This is especially useful for companies working with large amounts of data or complex reports. The stored data can also be used across dashboards, pivot views, and other connected tools, including AI integrations through MCP. Administrators can schedule the data to refresh automatically or update it manually when needed. The biggest benefit is faster access to the information you need, without having to wait for the system to process the same data repeatedly.
Across all the sessions, one thing was clear: Acumatica continues to focus on making everyday business processes easier, faster, and more connected. Whether it’s improving inventory management, simplifying project accounting, giving employees better tools on the shop floor, or using AI to get more value from existing data, these updates are designed to help businesses work more efficiently. While some enhancements will have an immediate impact and others may offer more opportunities down the road, we’re excited to see how these capabilities continue to develop. At Polaris, we’ll be taking a closer look at what these changes mean for our clients and how we can help them take advantage of the features that will bring the most value to their businesses.
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Acumatica 2026 R2 Preview: 3 Features That Could Change How You Work
Acumatica 2026 R2 continues the platform’s evolution toward a more intelligent, connected ERP. While the release includes about 500 pages of enhancements throughout the product, three areas stand out to us: AI Agents, Data Warehousing, and Parent-Child Projects.
Key Highlights of Acumatica 2026 R2
- AI Agents Take Automation Further
Acumatica continues expanding its AI capabilities with AI Agents designed to do more than simply answer questions. Agents can be configured to perform business tasks, work with Acumatica data—including customized data—and become part of automated workflows.
The AI Assistant is also becoming more integrated into everyday use, including greater awareness of the screen and business record a user is working with.
What it means: AI in Acumatica is moving from answering questions toward actually helping users complete work and automate repeatable business processes.
- Better Data Warehousing and Analytics
Acumatica 2026 R2 continues the push toward modern, always-current analytics while also improving the ability to move Acumatica data into external data warehouses and analytics platforms.
This creates new opportunities for companies that want to combine Acumatica information with data from other business systems or use advanced reporting and BI platforms without relying as heavily on manual exports.
What it means: Businesses can make Acumatica part of a broader data strategy, bringing ERP and non-ERP information together for reporting, dashboards, analytics, and AI.
- Parent-Child Projects
One of the most interesting enhancements for project-driven organizations is support for Parent-Child Projects.
This structure can allow multiple related projects to be managed individually while rolling information up to a larger parent project. For example, a company could track separate locations, phases, or workstreams as individual projects while maintaining visibility into the overall contract or engagement.
What it means: Project-based businesses gain better visibility into complex engagements without sacrificing detailed cost, revenue, and operational tracking at the individual project level.
Looking Ahead to Acumatica 2026 R2
These enhancements reflect the broader direction Acumatica is taking: combining ERP transactions, analytics, automation, and AI into a more connected platform.
Acumatica 2026 R2 is expected to be released in October 2026.
Interested in learning what Acumatica 2026 R2 could mean for your organization? Contact Polaris Business Solutions to learn more or join the Acumatica launch event on October 1st by registering here (https://www.acumatica.com/blog/acumatica-2026-r2-launch-event-registration-open/)
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Twenty years ago, ERP systems were often viewed as necessary—but complicated—business software. They were powerful, but expensive to maintain, difficult to customize, and frequently limited by the technology infrastructure surrounding them. Today, the ERP is entirely different.
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End-to-End Lot and Serial Tracking
Manual logs for lot numbers, serials, and certifications introduce massive compliance risks. When it comes to mission-critical manufacturing, full auditability and tracking is essential across every tier of the supply chain.
Acumatica’s Manufacturing Edition offers native, full-tree traceability. From incoming inspection to final delivery, every component lineage is logged. Quality teams can perform trace audits in minutes, rather than days.
Integrated Engineering & Production Control
Aerospace design involves constant iteration, requiring tight synchronization between design teams and shop floor operations. When changes occur, communicating updates across production is critical to prevent builds against outdated Bills of Materials, costly scrap and time-consuming rework.
Acumatica’s Engineering Change Control manages the complete lifecycle of engineering changes. It provides structured approval workflows, effective-date controls, side-by-side BOM comparisons, and complete revision histories to ensure changes are vetted and approved before hitting production.
For teams using CAD/PLM applications, third-party integrations connect design software directly to Acumatica, keeping engineering and ERP data in sync.
Advance Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
Volatile lead times and complex contracts require tight financial and material control. Acumatica MRP calculates purchase and production schedules based on live demand, lead times, and current inventory levels. This works hand in hand with Acumatica’s Project Accounting, which delivers real-time job costing and progress billing to protect project margins.
Security and Data Governance
Organizations must maintain strict data governance standards without creating unnecessary bottlenecks for authorized staff. Acumatica delivers enterprise-grade cloud security with granular, role-based access controls, field-level security, and comprehensive audit trails. Together, these layers ensure personnel see only the information necessary for their job roles, keeping sensitive contract data fully protected.
The energy at SmallSat made it clear that space tech isn’t just about discovery anymore. It’s about scalable, repeatable execution. For aerospace companies and the manufacturing ecosystem that powers them, real-time visibility into cost, inventory and compliance is the ultimate competitive advantage.
We specialize in configuring Acumatica ERP for aerospace innovators and their manufacturing partners. Connect with our team to explore how Acumatica can support your next launch phase!
August Blog: Simplifying the Fixed Asset Lifecycle with Acumatica ERP
Fixed assets involve much more than calculating depreciation. From the initial purchase to additions, transfers, depreciation, and eventual disposal, every change needs to be tracked accurately and reflected in the financial records. Acumatica Fixed Assets brings these processes together in one place, helping teams maintain asset history, automate accounting entries, and reduce the spreadsheets and manual adjustments often required to manage fixed assets. And with Acumatica 2026 R1, depreciation becomes even more flexible with the ability to schedule depreciation method changes by period.
Fixed Asset Classes: Start with Consistent Setup
Managing assets becomes much easier when similar assets follow the same accounting rules. Acumatica lets you create Fixed Asset Classes for categories such as buildings, machinery, computers, software, land, or assets under construction.
Each class can provide defaults for:
- Asset type and useful life
- Depreciation books and methods
- Fixed asset and accumulated depreciation accounts
- Depreciation expense accounts
- Gain and loss accounts
Most defaults can still be overridden when an individual asset requires different treatment.
Why It Matters
Instead of configuring every new asset from scratch, asset classes help standardize accounting across the organization. That means less setup, fewer inconsistencies, and easier control over fixed asset policies.
Convert Purchases Directly into Fixed Assets
A common accounting challenge is entering a purchase in AP and then entering essentially the same information again in a separate fixed asset system. Acumatica helps eliminate that duplicate work. Using Convert Purchases to Assets, qualifying purchases can be converted directly into fixed assets. A single purchase can also be divided into multiple assets, for example, when several computers are purchased on one invoice. When the conversion is processed, Acumatica automatically creates the appropriate fixed asset and reconciliation transactions, so the asset cost is moved from the accrual account into the fixed asset account.
What This Unlocks
- Less duplicate data entry
- Better connection between AP purchases and fixed assets
- Clearer reconciliation between the subledger and GL
- Easier processing of purchases containing multiple assets
The purchase does not simply disappear into a spreadsheet after AP processes the invoice, the asset continues through its lifecycle inside Acumatica.
Manage Additions and Deductions as Assets Change
An asset’s value does not always remain the same after acquisition. A company may install additional equipment, capitalize improvements, receive vendor credit, or record an impairment. Acumatica supports both additions and deductions to existing assets. An addition increases the asset’s current cost and net value. It can be created from another purchase or entered manually, and future depreciation is calculated using the updated asset value. Instead of using disconnected journal entries to correct asset balances, accounting teams can maintain those changes as part of the asset’s history. That creates a much clearer audit trail.
Calculate Depreciation Before Posting It
Acumatica provides two options when processing depreciation:
Calculate Only calculates depreciation without creating transactions.
Depreciate calculates depreciation and generates transactions that can ultimately be posted to the general ledger. This gives accountants an opportunity to review expected depreciation before posting anything. Once the depreciation transactions are released, Acumatica records the appropriate depreciation expense and accumulated depreciation entries.
What This Unlocks
- Preview depreciation before posting
- Process multiple assets together
- Review depreciation history by asset
- Reduce recurring manual journal entries
Transfers, Splits, and Disposals: Keep the Asset History Intact
Assets may transfer between departments, move to another branch, be split into separate assets, or eventually be sold or disposed of. Acumatica allows those changes to remain part of the fixed asset record. An asset can be transferred between departments or branches while retaining its location history. If the asset already has accumulated depreciation, that depreciation moves with it. Assets can also be split. When a depreciated asset is split, the system allocates the applicable cost and accumulated depreciation to the new asset. Finally, assets can be disposed of individually or in groups. Acumatica can allocate disposal proceeds automatically or allow them to be entered manually.
Why It Matters
The accounting record follows what happens to the asset. You are not just maintaining an ending balance, you are maintaining the history of how that balance changed.
Assets Under Construction: Capitalize Now, Depreciate Later
Some assets accumulate costs long before they are ready to be used. Buildings, major equipment installations, and facility improvements are common examples. Acumatica supports Assets Under Construction, allowing costs to accumulate while the asset is being built or prepared. Additions and deductions can still be recorded during construction, but depreciation does not begin while the asset remains under construction. This allows companies to track capital investment without prematurely recognizing depreciation expense.
What’s New in Acumatica 2026 R1?
Schedule Depreciation Method Changes by Period
Sometimes a company’s depreciation policy changes. The challenge is making that change going forward without changing depreciation that has already been posted. Acumatica 2026 R1 addresses this by allowing organizations to schedule depreciation method changes by financial period. Each applicable depreciation method can have its own Start Period. When that period arrives, the new method begins while previously posted depreciation remains unchanged.
For example:
An asset currently uses Straight-Line depreciation. Management decides that a different support method should take effect next fiscal year. Instead of changing the historical depreciation schedule, the accountant can add the new method and specify the future period when it should begin.
Why It Matters
This gives finance teams more flexibility when accounting policies or asset circumstances change. It also helps preserve the integrity of historical financial results because past depreciation is not recalculated simply because the future method changes. Acumatica also includes controls that prevent changes when they would create inconsistent depreciation schedules, such as for disposed or reversed assets and assets that are still under construction.
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Recent Posts
- Acumatica 2026 R2: What Stood Out to Us October 9, 2026
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- Acumatica 2026 R2 Preview: 3 Features That Could Change How You Work September 29, 2026