What is a Job Queue Entry in Business Central?

A job queue entry schedules a Business Central report or codeunit to run in the background, once or on a repeating pattern, and logs the result of each run.

A job queue entry is a scheduled background task in Business Central. It states which report or which codeunit to run and when, either once or on a recurring pattern, without anyone keeping a page open. Each entry has a status and writes one line per run in the job queue log.

Search for Job Queue Entries with Alt+Q. On a new entry you choose the object type to run, report or codeunit, then the object itself by name, set the earliest start date and time, and tick the recurrence and the weekdays if it should repeat. The entry only starts once its status is set to ready, and past runs appear in Job Queue Log Entries.

A distributor wants inventory costs adjusted every night. It creates an entry of type report, picks Adjust Cost - Item Entries by name, sets the earliest start to 04.08.2026 at 02:00, ticks every weekday as recurring, then sets the status to ready. The next morning the log shows one line with the result of the run.

Entries fail quietly. A task that ended in error does not restart until someone puts it back to ready, and the information sits in a log nobody reads. Background runs are also subject to permissions, so a task created by an administrator can fail once it runs under an account without rights on a table. Finally, scheduling several heavy jobs for the same minute achieves nothing, since the environment runs only a limited number of background tasks at once and the rest wait.

Keep the list short and readable: one entry per purpose, staggered start times, and a weekly look at the log to spot entries stuck in error. Note as well that copying a production environment into a sandbox deliberately leaves the scheduled tasks inactive, so review them after any copy or restore.

Frequently asked questions

Related terms

• Approval Workflow, Business Central's built-in system for routing purchase orders and invoices through configurable approval chains before posting.
• Adjust Cost - Item Entries, Adjust Cost - Item Entries is the Business Central batch job that carries later cost changes through to related item entries so inventory value is correct.
• Document Capture (OCR), The process of extracting structured data from documents (invoices, receipts) using AI or OCR technology.
• Permission Set, A permission set is a named group of read, insert, modify, delete and execute rights on Business Central objects, assigned to users to control what they can do.
• API Page, An API page is a Business Central page object of type API that exposes a table as a JSON REST endpoint, used by integrations instead of the user interface.

How Zentriq helps

Zentriq's AI tools automate many of the manual processes around job queue entry in Business Central. Learn about the Zentriq Agent or try Zentriq PunchOut to see how AI simplifies procurement in BC.