Last month, I worked with a distribution company whose sales team was losing patience with their "laggy" Business Central system. Order entry screens took 8-10 seconds to load, causing missed sales calls and frustrated customers. After implementing the techniques in this guide, their screens loaded in under 2 seconds, and the sales team estimated they could handle 20% more calls daily.

This isn't just about making computers run faster—it's about removing friction from your business processes. Let me show you how to make Business Central perform at its best.

Understanding What Makes Business Central Slow

Before diving into solutions, you need to know what's actually happening under the hood. Business Central performance breaks down into three core areas:

Server-Side Factors

The Business Central service tier manages business logic, data processing, and web service calls. Its performance depends on:

• Allocated resources: CPU cores, memory, and service tier capacity units
• Concurrent user load: How many people are actively using the system
• Background jobs: Reports, posting routines, and automated tasks competing for resources

Real example: A manufacturing client's system slowed to a crawl every day at 2 PM. We discovered an automated inventory valuation report was running exactly when production staff were recording output, creating a perfect storm of resource contention.

Database Performance

All your business data lives in SQL Server (cloud or on-premises). Database performance hinges on:

• Table design: How efficiently data is organized and indexed
• Query optimization: How intelligently the system retrieves information
• Data volume: Sheer amount of transaction history and master data
• Maintenance: Regular cleanup and optimization routines

Real example: An accounting firm complained about slow GL entry screens. Investigation revealed their chart of accounts table had never been indexed properly, causing even simple lookups to scan the entire table—a quick index addition cut screen load times by 80%.

Client-Side Experience

What users actually experience on their devices depends on:

• Network conditions: Bandwidth and latency between users and the BC server
• Browser choice: Different browsers handle Business Central's web client differently
• Device capabilities: Processing power and memory on user devices
• Extensions and customizations: Custom code that might not follow best practices

Real example: A retail company's warehouse staff reported unusable scan screens. The issue wasn't Business Central itself—their warehouse Wi-Fi was dropping packets, causing timeouts. Fixing the network solved their "software problem."

Measuring Performance: Know Your Baseline

You can't improve what you don't measure. Here's how to establish a performance baseline:

Set Up Telemetry (It's Easier Than You Think)

1. Create an Azure Application Insights resource in your Azure portal
2. Copy the connection string
3. In Business Central Admin Center, paste the string into the Application Insights field
4. Wait 24-48 hours to collect meaningful data

What this gives you: Detailed logs of slow queries, long-running operations, error patterns, and user experience metrics.

Pro tip: Create a dashboard with these key metrics:

• Average page load time
• SQL query duration
• API call response times
• Error rate percentages
• Resource utilization patterns

Use Built-in Tools to Spot Problems

Business Central includes several diagnostic tools that most companies never use:

• Session list: Shows what each user is doing and resource consumption
• Database locks: Reveals blocking processes causing wait times
• Event log: Records system errors that might indicate performance issues

What to look for: Patterns, not just individual incidents. A report that runs slow once might be an anomaly; if it happens every day at the same time, that's a fixable problem.

Server-Side Optimization: The Big Performance Wins

For cloud-based Business Central, these techniques yield the biggest improvements:

Right-Size Your Environment

Microsoft offers multiple service plans with different capacity and performance characteristics. Many companies choose the wrong one:

Real example: A 50-user wholesale company struggled with slow performance until upgrading from Essential to Premium. The additional processing capacity reduced their average page load times from 4.2 seconds to 1.8 seconds—well worth the additional cost.

Schedule Background Tasks Strategically

Background jobs consume resources that could otherwise serve interactive users. Smart scheduling makes a huge difference:

• Run heavy reports during off-hours: Schedule inventory valuations, financial analysis, and data synchronization for evenings or weekends
• Stagger jobs: Don't start multiple resource-intensive tasks simultaneously
• Monitor job queues: Check for failed or stuck jobs that consume resources without producing results

Real example: A manufacturing company moved their 12 daily sales and inventory reports to run between 2 AM and 5 AM instead of during the day. Daytime system performance improved by 35% with this simple change.

Database Optimization: Making Your Data Work Faster

The database often becomes the bottleneck in Business Central performance. These techniques address that:

Create Strategic Indexes (But Not Too Many)

Indexes make specific data lookups faster but slow down overall data modification. The key is balance:

1. Use telemetry to identify the slowest-running queries
2. Add indexes for fields frequently used in those queries
3. Remove unnecessary indexes that aren't being used

Real example: A distribution company added three custom indexes to their sales line table based on analysis of their slowest queries. Order processing screens went from 6-second load times to under 2 seconds.

Warning sign: If posting routines (sales orders, purchase orders, journals) start running slower after adding indexes, you may have over-indexed your tables.

Implement a Data Archiving Strategy

More data = slower performance. Most companies keep far more transaction history in their live system than necessary:

1. Determine regulatory and business requirements for data retention
2. Archive closed transactions older than your requirement to a separate database
3. Keep your production database lean and focused on current operations

Real example: An accounting firm archived three years of closed ledger entries, reducing their database size by 60% and improving month-end closing time from 4 hours to 90 minutes.

Optimize Your Most-Used Lists

List pages (customers, vendors, items) often cause performance complaints. Improve them by:

1. Setting smart default filters to limit initial data load
2. Creating role-specific views that show only relevant fields
3. Using FlowFields judiciously (they trigger additional calculations)

Real example: A retail company's customer service team complained about slow customer lists. By creating a custom view showing only active customers from the past year (instead of all 45,000 customers), their list page loaded in 2 seconds instead of 12.

Client-Side Optimization: Improving User Experience

Even with a perfectly tuned server and database, user experience can still suffer. Address these common client-side issues:

Browser and Network Optimization

• Chrome and Edge generally offer the best performance with Business Central
• Clearing cache regularly prevents outdated resource loading
• Wired connections outperform Wi-Fi for consistent performance
• Quality of Service (QoS) settings can prioritize Business Central traffic

Real example: A construction company's field staff struggled with Business Central performance until we discovered their VPN was throttling the connection. Adjusting QoS settings to prioritize Business Central traffic made the system usable even on 4G connections.

Train Users on Performance-Friendly Practices

Some user behaviors can dramatically impact system performance:

• Avoid keeping multiple sessions open unnecessarily
• Sign out properly rather than just closing browser tabs
• Use built-in filters instead of retrieving all records and filtering visually
• Schedule large exports/imports during off-peak hours

Real example: A manufacturing company reduced system load by 30% after training users to close sessions properly and use efficient search techniques.

Troubleshooting Specific Performance Problems

When faced with specific performance issues, follow this systematic approach:

Slow Page Loading

If pages take more than 3 seconds to load:

1. Check if the issue affects all users or just specific locations (indicates network problems)
2. Review page design—tables with many FlowFields or complex calculations load slower
3. Examine customizations—poorly optimized extensions can cause slowdowns
4. Review table relationships and indexing strategy for displayed data

Fix that worked: A service company's job list took 15+ seconds to load. Adding an index on the Status field (their most common filter) reduced load time to 3 seconds.

Posting Delays

When posting documents (invoices, orders) takes too long:

1. Check database locks—another process might be blocking completion
2. Review customization events triggered during posting
3. Examine table sizes for related documents
4. Check if the slowdown occurs at specific times (indicating resource contention)

Fix that worked: A retail company's sales invoice posting took 25+ seconds. We discovered their inventory costing job was running exactly when the accounting team posted daily invoices. Rescheduling the costing job reduced posting time to 6 seconds.

Report Generation Timeouts

When reports fail or take too long:

1. Run the report with fewer parameters or date ranges to identify scaling issues
2. Check for missing indexes on commonly filtered fields
3. Consider creating pre-calculated tables for complex reports
4. Move complex reports to Power BI for better performance

Fix that worked: A manufacturing company's production analysis report often timed out. Moving the complex calculations to a scheduled job that prepared a summary table reduced run time from 8+ minutes to 45 seconds.

Real-World Performance Wins

Here are actual results from companies after implementing these optimization techniques:

Wholesale Distributor (120 Users)

Before optimization:

• Order entry screen: 8-10 seconds to load
• Month-end closing: 14+ hours
• Customer statements: 45+ minutes to generate

After optimization:

• Order entry screen: 2-3 seconds to load
• Month-end closing: 4 hours
• Customer statements: 12 minutes to generate

Key changes: Database indexing strategy, archiving closed years, moving reporting to off-hours, and upgrading service tier during month-end.

Professional Services Firm (45 Users)

Before optimization:

• Timesheet entry: 5-7 seconds between saves
• Project profitability reports: Often timed out
• Invoice generation: 3-4 minutes per batch

After optimization:

• Timesheet entry: Under 2 seconds between saves
• Project profitability reports: 2-3 minutes to run
• Invoice generation: Under 1 minute per batch

Key changes: Custom indexes on time entry tables, simplified page designs, and user training on efficient data entry techniques.

Beyond Technical Fixes: The Business Context

Performance optimization isn't just a technical exercise—it requires understanding your business processes:

• Identify your business rhythm: When do users need the system most? When are peak usage periods?
• Prioritize critical processes: Which business functions can't tolerate delays? (Usually order entry, shipping, financial posting)
• Consider workflow changes: Sometimes the best "technical" fix is a business process adjustment
• Build a performance culture: Train users to report issues specifically and promptly

The most successful Business Central environments I've seen share this trait: they treat performance as an ongoing business priority, not a one-time technical fix.

Final Thoughts: A Practical Approach to Performance

After optimizing dozens of Business Central environments, I've found that sustainable performance comes from this approach:

1. Measure before changing: Establish baselines and identify specific bottlenecks
2. Make one change at a time: Test the impact before moving to the next optimization
3. Consider business impact: Focus first on optimizing the processes most critical to your operations
4. Create a maintenance schedule: Performance tuning isn't a one-time project
5. Document everything: Keep records of what worked and what didn't for future reference

Remember that Business Central performance optimization is an ongoing journey, not a destination. As your business grows and changes, your performance needs will evolve too. The companies that treat performance as a continuous improvement process—rather than a crisis response—enjoy the best outcomes.

This guide is based on my experience optimizing Business Central performance across dozens of companies and industries since 2018. Your specific environment may face unique challenges not covered here.