The WPS SIF File Explained, Line by Line

A WPS SIF file is a plain text file with one SCR line describing the employer and the total, followed by one EDR line for each employee, giving their ID, bank, IBAN, pay period, days paid, fixed income, variable income and leave days. Your bank or exchange house reads it to pay salaries through the Wage Protection System. If you know what each field means, a rejected file stops being a mystery.

This post takes a WPS SIF file apart field by field, using the layout Wurxa writes and a fictional three-person company. For the common reasons a file is rejected, read what a WPS SIF file is and how to avoid rejections.

Records are separated by commas in the default layout, one record per line, the control line first:

There is no header row and no column names. Position is everything: a field in the wrong place is a wrong value, even if the value itself is correct.

Agents are not identical. The delimiter, the date format (YYYY-MM-DD at one, DDMMYYYY or DD/MM/YYYY at another), the decimals and the file name can differ, so the first rule is to use the format your own agent publishes.

One SCR (salary control record) line for the whole file.
One EDR (employee detail record) line per employee.

What is in the SCR line?

The control line identifies the employer and summarises everything under it. In the layout Wurxa produces, the fields run in this order:

The line count and the total are the two fields an agent can check against the lines underneath. If either disagrees with the EDRs, the agent can reject the file, which is why the total should be added from exactly the figures printed in the EDR lines, rounded the same way.

What is in each EDR line?

Each employee gets one line:

Three fields deserve a closer look.

Fixed income is what is paid, not the contract figure. In the layout Wurxa writes there is no separate net pay column: what the agent pays is fixed plus variable. So fixed income is basic plus allowances less deductions such as unpaid leave and a loan instalment. If a deduction stayed out of the file, the bank would pay the employee as if it had never happened.

Variable income is money, never hours. Enter the overtime amount, not the overtime hours. The UAE overtime calculator works the amount out from basic salary.

Leave days is a whole number. A value such as 2.5 can get the whole file rejected. Track half days in your leave records if you use them, and round only when the file is written.

A worked example

Three fictional employees, paid for October 2026 on a calendar month:

Employee A had 2 days of unpaid leave (AED 600) and a AED 500 advance instalment, so her fixed income is 9,000 less 1,100. Unpaid leave also reduces her days on payroll from 31 to 29. Her variable income is overtime pay.

The SCR total is the sum of the fixed and variable columns:

7,900.00 + 262.50 + 4,500.00 + 0.00 + 12,000.00 + 350.00 = 25,012.50

So the control line says 3 lines, 25012.50, AED, for salary month 102026, and the three EDR lines each carry a pay start of 2026-10-01 and a pay end of 2026-10-31 in the default date format.

What about the file name?

Agents can be strict about it. Wurxa names the file with the employer's establishment ID, then the creation date and time, then .sif, using the same moment as the SCR's date and time in Gulf time. If your agent asks for something different, follow the agent.

Where the numbers come from

Nearly every field is copied from somewhere else: the person ID and IBAN from the employee record, the days and leave from attendance and approved leave, the income from the payroll run. A SIF typed by hand each month repeats those numbers a second time, and the second copy is where mistakes appear.

Wurxa Payroll builds the SIF from the locked pay run, in the layout of the bank or exchange house you choose. Before the month is locked, a readiness check lists any missing IBAN, routing code or MOHRE person ID with a link to fix it. You then upload the file to your agent as you do today; Wurxa does not pay salaries. Check each file against your agent's current specification, because you are responsible for what you submit.

To see how your own agent's layout is handled, Ask Sara on wurxa.com or message us.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a WPS SIF file?

The salary information file an employer gives its WPS agent, the bank or exchange house paying the salaries, under the UAE Wage Protection System. It holds one SCR control line for the employer and one EDR line for each employee paid.

What does the SCR line contain?

In the layout Wurxa writes, the record type SCR, the employer's MOHRE establishment ID, the employer's bank routing code, the file creation date and time, the salary month, the number of EDR lines, the total amount and the currency, AED.

What does an EDR line contain?

The record type EDR, the employee's MOHRE person ID, the routing code of the employee's bank, the IBAN, the pay period start and end dates, the days paid, fixed income, variable income and leave days.

Is variable income hours or money?

Money. Variable income is the amount in AED paid on top of fixed income for the period, such as overtime pay, commission or a bonus, never a number of hours.

Is the SIF layout the same at every bank?

No. Agents differ on details such as the date format, the file name and extra fields, so build the file in the format your own bank or exchange house publishes and compare it with their current specification.