Last Updated: June 2026
If you are running on a SaaS subscription, you already have access to something that changes how ERP upgrades work. Most customers know the Always Current program exists. Fewer know how to use it well.
For most of the history of ERP, staying current meant periodic upgrade projects, deferred features, and security patches that backed up while the business waited for the right moment to tackle a version jump. Always Current is built around a different model entirely. The upgrade becomes a scheduled, predictable event your team plans around, not a capital project that gets pushed every time something more urgent comes up.
The is the cloud-era answer to that problem. It turns the upgrade from a periodic crisis into a scheduled, predictable event that your team plans around instead of dreads. The program is straightforward in concept. The value shows up in how you prepare for it.
What Is the Acumatica Always Current Program?
Always Current is the automatic upgrade program for Acumatica SaaS customers. Instead of deciding for yourself when and whether to move to a new version, you are placed on a scheduled upgrade cadence that keeps your tenant on a supported release, with the latest features and security patches included.
Acumatica ships two major releases per year. Customers on Always Current are typically moved to a new version a few months after it is released, once the version has stabilized, and the first service packs have shipped. You get formal advance notices before your upgrade window opens, usually at ninety, sixty, and thirty days out, so nothing lands as a surprise.
The upgrade frequency depends on your edition. Smaller editions are upgraded twice per year. Advanced, Select, and Enterprise customers have more flexibility and can typically choose between once or twice a year depending on how much control they want over timing. Customers who need precise scheduling can work with their partner to pick a specific upgrade date through Acumatica's flexible scheduling options.
Why Does Always Current Actually Matter to the Business?
Here's the thing: the value of Always Current is not just that upgrades happen. It is what stops happening.
You stop budgeting six-figure upgrade projects every three years. You stop running on an unsupported version because the upgrade keeps getting deferred. You stop asking your CFO for emergency capital every time the gap between your version and current becomes untenable. The upgrade becomes operational expense spread across your SaaS subscription, not a capital event you have to defend to the board.
Security follows the same pattern. When patches are included in the scheduled update cycle, you are not running vulnerable infrastructure because nobody got around to applying a fix. Staying current is the default, not a project.
Access to new features shifts too. Functionality that used to wait for your next formal upgrade cycle, sometimes years away, now reaches your users a few months after it ships. That changes how your operations team thinks about Acumatica. They stop waiting for "the next upgrade" to ask for capabilities and start expecting improvement as a continuous process.
How Should You Prepare for Your Always Current Upgrade Window?
This is the part the product brochures leave out, and it’s where most of the real work happens. An automatic upgrade is not the same thing as a hands-off upgrade. Preparation is still required, and skipping preparation is how avoidable surprises happen on go-live day.
Three areas deserve attention in the ninety-day window before your scheduled upgrade.
- Any custom code, screen modifications, or published extensions need to be tested against the new version in a sandbox environment before the production upgrade runs. Major upgrades can temporarily unpublish customizations, and those need to be republished post-upgrade. The sandbox pass is what tells you whether your customizations will need adjustment or whether they will carry forward cleanly.
- API-connected third-party systems (shipping software, ecommerce platforms, EDI, CRM, reporting tools) should be validated in the sandbox too. Endpoint changes, authentication updates, and schema shifts between Acumatica versions are uncommon but not impossible, and finding them in a sandbox is much better than finding them during month-end close.
- Process documentation. If your team has custom workflows, reports, or GI screens that rely on specific field behavior, now is the time to confirm those still behave the way you expect. A version-to-version upgrade rarely breaks core functionality, but edge cases show up in the places where your configuration is most specific to how your business runs.
A good partner will run the sandbox upgrade with you, document the delta between versions for your tenant specifically, and surface any customizations or integrations that need attention before production cutover. That is the work that turns a scheduled upgrade into an uneventful one.
What Happens if You Skip the Preparation?
The program is designed to be low-friction, but low-friction is not the same as zero-friction. Customers who treat the advance notice as a formality, rather than a prep window, are the ones who get caught off-guard.
The most common issues are not dramatic. A custom screen renders oddly because a new field was added upstream. An integration breaks because an API response shape shifted. A report stops pulling because a source field was renamed. These are all fixable, usually quickly. They are also all avoidable with a sandbox pass and a conversation with your partner before the upgrade runs.
The upgrade will still happen on schedule either way. The question is whether your team spends the day after verifying that everything is running cleanly or scrambling to fix something that could have been caught two weeks earlier in a test environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I skip an Always Current upgrade?
Not indefinitely. Acumatica supports a defined range of versions, and staying within that range is part of being on the program. Customers with legitimate business reasons delaying a specific upgrade window can usually work with their partner to adjust timing, but long-term avoidance is not supported.
Does Always Current cost extra?
No. It is part of the standard Acumatica SaaS subscription. The program is designed so that continuous currency is the default experience, not a premium tier.
What happens to my customizations during an upgrade?
Customizations may temporarily unpublish during a major upgrade and need to be republished afterward. Custom code should be tested against the new version in a sandbox beforehand to confirm it still works as expected. This is where your partner adds real value in the days leading up to the upgrade window.
Ready to Get the Most Out of Always Current?
The Always Current program removes the upgrade event from your long-range planning calendar. It does not remove the value of having a partner who knows your configuration, tests your customizations, and walks the upgrade with you.
has spent more than forty years implementing and supporting Acumatica for distribution, manufacturing, and mobility companies. Their team works alongside Acumatica clients through every Always Current upgrade window, validating customizations, testing integrations, and making sure the scheduled upgrade lands without surprises.
to walk through your current Acumatica setup, or call 860-485-0910 to talk to their team about what your next upgrade window should look like.
CAL Business Solutions is an Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation partner serving distribution, manufacturing, and mobility businesses across the United States. Their team helps Acumatica SaaS customers prepare for Always Current upgrades with sandbox testing, integration validation, and customization review so scheduled upgrades stay uneventful.
By CAL Business Solutions, Inc. CAL is an Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics partner headquartered in Connecticut, serving companies across the United States for more than 40 years. Learn more at calszone.com.