Supercharging Business Central: How to Make It Feel Faster, Smoother, and Surprisingly More Enjoyable

There’s a particular kind of frustration that hits when you’re trying to get something done in Business Central and the page takes just a little too long to load. Not long enough to be a disaster—but long enough to break your focus. Maybe you’re reviewing orders before a meeting, or trying to get through a stack of approvals, and suddenly the momentum is
gone.

Most people chalk it up to “the system being slow,” but the truth is usually more interesting—and far more fixable. Business Central is capable of being fast and fluid. In many cases, the slowdown comes from small, everyday factors that you actually have control over.

With a few smart adjustments, you can make the whole experience feel faster, lighter, and much more enjoyable. Let’s walk through the changes that make the biggest difference.

 

Your Browser Plays a Bigger Role Than You’d Expect

It’s easy to think of the browser as just “the window” you use to access Business Central. But under the hood, it does a lot of heavy lifting. Some browsers are designed to handle modern web apps efficiently, while others simply aren’t.

Using a modern browser like Edge or Chrome unlocks features such as caching, which
allows previously opened pages to appear almost instantly. Older browsers or private/guest modes wipe out that stored data every time, forcing Business Central to rebuild the full page layout again and again.

If you’ve ever thought, “Why does this page always feel slow to open?” the browser might be the reason.
A simple switch—using a supported browser and a proper profile—can noticeably improve your daily experience.

 

Internet Speed Isn’t the Whole Story

When things feel slow online, the instinct is to blame the internet connection. But in Business Central, the real culprit is often latency—the time it takes for your device to send a request and get a response.
You might have great bandwidth, yet still feel lag if:

• Your Wi-Fi signal is weak
• You’re connected through a VPN
• Your office network routes traffic through heavy security layers
• You’re physically far from the datacenter hosting your environment

Latency is one of those invisible issues you don’t notice until someone points it out. Once you test it, though, the picture becomes clear.
If your team regularly complains about slow pages, it’s worth checking this. Fixing a latency issue often improves performance instantly, without any changes to Business Central
itself.

 

A Small But Meaningful Tip: Stay Plugged In

Here’s an unexpected one: laptops reduce their own performance when running on battery. They do it quietly to preserve power, but the impact is noticeable in a browser-based app.

If Business Central feels slower in a meeting room or away from your desk, your laptop’s power mode could be the reason. Staying plugged in while doing heavier work—like month- end tasks or bulk processing—helps the browser run at full speed.

It’s a simple habit with a surprisingly big payoff.

 

Lighten the Pages You Use Every Day

Over time, Business Central pages can collect clutter. A few extra columns here, a handful of FactBoxes there, a Role Center part added “just in case”—and suddenly pages start
feeling heavier.

Every element on a page requires loading and processing. The more you see, the more the system has to assemble in the background.
The good news is that streamlining your workspace is quick and easy:

• Collapse the FactBox pane when you don’t need it
• Hide columns that aren’t essential
• Remove Role Center elements that don’t support your workflow
• Keep only the parts you actually use
Think of it like cleaning up your digital workspace. The simpler the page, the faster and smoother it feels.

 

Use the Features Designed for Speed

Business Central quietly includes tools that cut time and clicks from your day, but many people never explore them.

A few that can have an immediate impact:

Keyboard shortcuts – Perfect for reducing mouse-heavy actions.
Quick Entry – Lets you define exactly which fields you want to jump through when pressing Enter.
Tell Me – A fast way to jump directly to a page or action.
Role Explorer – Helps you find what you need without digging through menu layers.
Edit in Excel – Ideal for bulk updates or making structured changes quickly.

When people discover these features, they often wonder how they ever worked without them.

 

Large Files Can Quietly Drag Down Performance

 

Images and attachments tend to grow over time—especially product photos, PDFs, and scanned documents. Even though Business Central can store them, that doesn’t mean it should.
High-resolution images and oversized files take longer to upload, longer to download, and longer for the system to process. If you’ve ever opened a page and watched it hesitate
because it’s loading a massive photo, you’ve felt this firsthand.

A better approach is to:

• Reduce image size before uploading
• Use web-friendly formats
• Store large files in SharePoint or another external system and link to them instead

This keeps Business Central lean and responsive while still providing access to all your information.

 

Search Smarter for Faster Results

Broad searches scan every column in the table, which can be slow on large lists. Using filters—especially column-specific filters—returns results faster and gives you more control over what you're looking for.

It’s a small shift, but it makes navigating large datasets noticeably quicker.

 

Sometimes the System Isn’t Slow—The Setup Is

When people say, “Business Central is slow,” the root cause is often outside the app:

• An outdated browser
• High latency
• An overloaded page layout
• Oversized attachments
• Underused productivity features
• A device running in power-saving mode

Optimizing these areas can transform the experience without requiring system changes or big technical projects.

 

Fast Systems Make Work Feel Better

Speed isn’t just a technical metric. It shapes the way people work and how they feel about their tools.

A fast system keeps momentum going. A slow one breaks it.

If your team could save even 10 minutes a day by improving Business Central’s performance, what would that look like by the end of the month? Or by year-end?

Small improvements add up quickly.

If you’d like help identifying opportunities or making Business Central feel faster for your teams, reach out anytime at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Let’s make your Business Central experience as smooth and efficient as it was meant to be.