Most of the time, the inner workings of a database are the last thing a business owner wants to think about. But every now and then, something from deep in the engine room surfaces as a practical lever you can actually pull — to make the system faster and cheaper to run. The 2026 Wave 1 release brings one of those: the ability for administrators to manage database indexes per company, right from the Business Central interface.

It sounds technical, and underneath it is. But the business outcome is simple and appealing: a tidier, faster, less costly database — without a developer, a support ticket, or any downtime.

A Quick, Jargon-Free Explainer

An index is a database structure that helps the system find, filter, and sort data quickly — like the index at the back of a book. Without indexes, large tables would be painfully slow to search. With the right ones, queries fly.

But indexes are not free. Each one takes up storage, and it has to be kept up to date every time a record is created, changed, or deleted — which can actually slow those operations down. Over time, especially in a system that has grown and been customised, you can accumulate indexes that are barely used but still cost you in storage and write performance. That is the waste this feature lets you trim.

What the Feature Lets Admins Do

From the Table Information page, an administrator can now open a Database Index Information view and see, per company, exactly what is going on:

•      See the full picture. Per-index detail including storage usage, SQL Server usage statistics, and whether each index is AL-defined or system-generated — so you can spot the indexes that cost storage but are barely used.

•      Turn off what you don't need. Disable non-unique, low-usage indexes to reduce storage costs and improve write performance — per company, or across all companies in the environment.

•      Per-company flexibility. Because per-company tables hold their indexes independently, you can keep an index enabled only for the companies that actually need it — without affecting the others.

•      Safe by design. Unique indexes, primary keys, SIFT, and system ID indexes are protected and cannot be disabled, so data integrity is never at risk.

•      No downtime. Disabling takes effect immediately; enabling is queued for the scheduled midnight process — so changes happen in the background, away from peak hours.

Why This Matters — Especially on Cost 

This feature lands at a useful moment. With the November 2025 price increase, customers are more conscious than ever about what they store and how their environment performs. Index management gives admins a direct, no-cost way to:

•      Reclaim storage. Trimming unused indexes frees database space — which, alongside features like external attachment storage, helps keep you within capacity limits and avoid buying add-on storage.

•      Speed up data entry. Fewer redundant indexes means faster create, update, and delete operations — a smoother experience for the people entering transactions all day.

•      Tune to how you actually work. Multi-company groups can keep specialised indexes only where a functional area is used, rather than carrying the cost everywhere.

Before and After: A Multi-Company Group in Gauteng

Before: A group runs five companies in one Business Central environment. Years of growth and a few customisations have left the database carrying indexes that some companies never use. Storage is creeping toward the limit, data entry feels sluggish at month-end, and nobody is quite sure why — fixing it has always meant a developer and a change request.

After: The administrator opens the Database Index Information page, sorts by usage and storage, and identifies a handful of large, barely-touched indexes. They disable them — for the companies that do not need them — and the change applies in the background. Storage drops, write performance improves, and it was done in an afternoon, in the UI, without touching code.

Why Resellers Should Take Note

For CSP resellers and partners, this is a clean, repeatable value-add — particularly for customers with large, mature, or multi-company environments. A periodic index-and-storage health review, using these new tools, is exactly the kind of proactive managed-service offering that demonstrates ongoing care and tangibly reduces a customer's cost and improves their performance. It pairs naturally with the external attachment storage capability as part of a broader "keep your environment lean and fast" conversation — one that resonates strongly after the recent price change. One word of guidance worth passing on: disable thoughtfully, based on real usage statistics, since an index removed in haste can slow a genuinely needed query.

More broadly, putting database-level tuning into the hands of administrators — safely, in the UI, with guardrails — reflects Business Central's maturity as a cloud platform. The businesses (and partners) that take advantage of these quiet levers run leaner, faster systems than those that leave the engine room untouched.

Let's Talk

If your Business Central environment feels sluggish, is creeping toward its storage limit, or runs multiple companies, a database index and storage review could deliver a real, no-licence-cost improvement. 4Sight's Dynamics Africa Services team can analyse your index usage and safely tune your environment for better performance and lower cost.