Personalise Pages in Business Central

Personalise Pages in Business Central: What to Change (and Not)

Learn how to personalise Business Central pages safely—add fields, move columns, tweak FactBoxes, and avoid changes that break team consistency, training, and audits.

If you use Business Central daily, personalisation is one of the fastest ways to win time back. Used well, it strips out noise and puts the fields you actually need right where your eyes already are.

Used badly… it turns Business Central into “choose your own adventure”, where nobody’s screen matches anyone else’s, training becomes impossible, and month-end feels like a practical joke.

We’ve seen both outcomes. Let’s make sure you get the first one.

Personalisation vs customisation (this matters)

Personalisation changes your workspace (per user).

Customising pages for a profile (role) changes the default layout for everyone assigned to that profile—if you have the permissions to do it.

Practical rule:

• If it helps you work faster: personalise.

• If it helps the team work consistently: request a profile change (or a proper extension).

What you should personalise (high value, low regret)

1) List pages: fix your columns first

Most time is wasted on list pages: scrolling, hunting, opening cards unnecessarily.

What to change:

• Show/hide columns

• Reorder columns so decision fields are visible

• Set Freeze Pane so key columns stay visible while scrolling

Good examples:

• Sales Orders list: freeze Customer, Status, Amount

• Items list: freeze No., Description, Inventory

2) Card pages: move the fields you actually use into reach

Card pages are usually “designed for everyone”, which means “perfect for nobody”.

What to change:

• Move fields into the sections you naturally work in

• Hide fields you never touch

• Add fields that are available but not currently shown

Reality check: you can only add fields that the page exposes for personalisation. If it’s not offered, you’ll need profile customisation or an extension.

3) FactBoxes: keep only the ones that reduce clicks

FactBoxes are brilliant when they give context you’d otherwise click for (stats, availability, related docs). They’re awful when they just hog space.

What to change:

• show/hide FactBoxes and sections

• keep 1–2 that genuinely save time (not “because it looks clever”)

4) Actions: tailor the action bar (without going mad)

Business Central supports tailoring actions, including on document lines (subparts), which is a big productivity win if you live in orders and journals.

Good candidates:

• Release / Reopen

• Post / Post and Send

• Create Warehouse Shipment

• Navigate

Keep it tight: if everything is “important”, nothing is.

5) Lock editing on fields (use sparingly)

You can lock editing on some fields so you don’t accidentally change them. Useful when you’re rushing.

But:

• you can only unlock fields you locked yourself

• some fields are locked by design or by profile customisation and can’t be unlocked

What you should NOT personalise (or you’ll create a support nightmare)

1) Don’t personalise your way around a broken process

If users are hiding key fields because “the process is annoying”, you don’t have a UI problem—you’ve got a process/design problem.

Personalisation should reduce noise and speed up good work, not hide the controls that stop bad work.

2) Don’t create five versions of the same workflow

If a team shares a workflow (sales orders, purchase orders, journals, approvals) and everyone personalises heavily, training becomes “guess what I’m looking at” and handovers become painful.

If multiple people need the same improvement, escalate it to a profile customisation.

3) Don’t fight locked or blocked pages

Sometimes you’ll open a page and find it can’t be personalised. That’s not Business Central being moody; it’s usually intentional.

A page can be:

• Locked (lock icon)

• Blocked (blocked icon)

Either way, it prevents personalisation for a reason (consistency, controls, stability). If it’s harming productivity, raise it properly rather than inventing workarounds.

4) Don’t confuse personalisation with “views”

Filters/sorts can be saved as views; personalisation is about layout (fields/columns/actions). When users mix these up, they think “Business Central forgot my changes” when they actually saved the wrong thing.

Step-by-step: how to personalise a page safely

1. Open the page you want to change (list or card).
2. Select the Settings (cog) (top right).
3. Choose Personalise.
4. Make one change at a time:
   

   • hide/show a field or column

   • drag to reorder

   • set freeze pane (lists)

   • adjust FactBoxes

   • tailor actions (where supported)

5. Select Done.

Pro tip from painful experience: personalise, use it for a day, then adjust. People who redesign everything in one sitting usually redesign it again next week.

Will my changes “stick”? Yes… with one catch

Business Central stores personalisation in two ways:

• Roaming personalisation is stored in the Business Central service and follows you across devices/browsers.

• Local personalisation is stored in your browser and only affects that browser/profile.

Meaning:

• If your organisation clears browser data aggressively, some “local” UI tweaks may disappear.

• If something’s not sticking, don’t assume “Business Central is broken” — check whether it’s a roaming vs local behaviour first.

A simple do/don’t guide to keep teams sane

When to escalate to an admin or partner

Escalate when:

• more than one person needs the same layout improvement (profile customisation)

• a field isn’t available to add but is operationally required (page design/extension)

• the page is locked/blocked and it’s hurting productivity

• users report changes “resetting” across devices/browsers (roaming vs local)

Next Steps

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