On April 1st, 2026 Microsoft published the Quality Management module as part of Business Central version 28 (2026 release wave 1).

The Microsoft Quality Management extension was created from a licensed subset of the Insight Works Quality Inspector module.

An introductory video for the Microsoft Quality Management extension:

For more information on the Insight Works Quality Inspector extension, see the Quality Inspector page.

Product Differences

As Quality Management (QM) is a subset of Quality Inspector (QI), there are technical and functional differences between the applications.

A feature comparison grid is available here https://dmsiworks.com/quality-inspector-vs-microsoft-quality-management.

Primary Technical Differences

Technical differences between the extensions include:

• QM and QI are different extensions, installed separately:
  • QM is installed by default with Business Central.
  • QI is installed from Marketplace (or for on premises, from an app file provided by Insight Works).
• QM and QI have different object IDs, different object names, and some terminology differences.
• Version compatibility:
  • QM requires Business Central version 28 (2026 Release wave 1) or newer.
  • QI from Insight Works supports Business Central version 13 and newer, with some functional limitations for older versions.
• Power Automate and Web Services use different APIs, with QI providing some functionality not available in QM (e.g., creating PDFs with the API).
• There are no dependencies between QM and QI; you can use each extension independently, and there are no restrictions if both are installed in the same environment

Primary Functional Differences

The extensions’ core functionality is similar, with the same concepts of templates, generation rules, and inspections. The functional differences between the extensions include:

• Insight Works application integrations:
  • Shop Floor Insight and Warehouse Insight: Capture Quality Inspection details in the Shop Floor Insight or Warehouse Insight interfaces.
  • Rule Builder: Allows the user to evaluate complex expression for templates.
  • Graphical Scheduler: Allows the user to drag-and-drop inspection assignment and scheduling.
  • Maintenance Manager: Allows the user to manage maintenance on QI tooling.
  • DocXtender: Allows the user to drag and drop documents to SharePoint or Business Central.
• Functionality in Insight Works Quality Inspector and not in the Microsoft Quality Management:

• • Specialized phone and tablet interfaces in Business Central mobile app.
  • Adaptive cards and Microsoft Teams Integration.
  • AI (Cognitive Services) integrations:
    • Azure Document Intelligence which allows OCR, like physical copies of the forms.
    • Fill values with voice or natural language text.
    • Generate quality templates.
  •  Numeric Expressions to allow for dynamic tolerances and reusable templates.
  • More advanced Text Expressions.
  • Configurable source configurations to allow inspections on any record in Business Central.
  • Tooling management for tracking test tools and managing calibration.
  • Automated product grading with lot blocking options.
  • Miscellaneous differences:
    • Balloon/characteristic no. when recording test results
    • Fair Form 3 report
    • Basic charting and analysis views
    • Power Automate and Web service APIs are more comprehensive in QI
    • Notifications behave differently
    • Sales to Production Trigger for automated test generation
    • Create PDF Attachments of Quality Reports
    • Entering very large text in test result fields
  •  More advanced sampling capability:
    • AQL to automatically select sample size
    • Individual sample measurements with aggregate results
  •  Skip lot configuration, allowing users to skip unnecessary tests.
  • Specialized phone and tablet interface in Business Central phone/tablet app.
  • The ability to influence put-away bins.
  • Additional configuration for limiting lots for outbound transactions.
  • Signature field support.

Additional Considerations

If you are already familiar with the Insight Works Quality Inspector or the older Shop Floor Insight quality module features, you are already familiar with the Microsoft Quality Management extension.

Quality Management Integration

We do not currently intend on providing integration applications between our other Insight Works applications and the Microsoft Quality Management application. If you need to use Quality features with other Insight Works apps such as Shop Floor Insight, Warehouse Insight, Maintenance Manager, DocXtender, and similar, you will need to purchase the Insight Works Quality Inspector application.

Expand Quality Management or Quality Inspector

Microsoft Quality Management is expandable. If you are missing a specific feature from Quality Inspector, you can expand Quality Management to incorporate it; however, the license fee for Quality Inspector is more cost effective long term than attempting to create and maintain Quality Management extensions.

Quality Inspector is also expandable with event documentation and sample code available, and the Insight Works’ YouTube channel has additional technical and functional videos.

Upgrade from Quality Management

An upgrade toolkit to migrate from Quality Management to Quality Inspector is available from Insight Works, allowing you to start with the base Microsoft module and migrate seamlessly to Insight Works Quality Inspector when you need more advanced capabilities.

Terminology Differences

There are some notable terminology differences between Shop Floor Insight Quality Inspections, Quality Inspector Inspections, and Microsoft Quality Management Inspections. See the following table for the main differences.