WPS SIF file checker

What the checker looks at

• The control record. Exactly one SCR line, with the right number of fields, a valid date, time and salary month (MMYYYY), AED as the currency, and a valid payer IBAN.
• The count and total. The employee count must match the number of EDR lines, and the control total must equal the sum of every line’s fixed and variable pay to the fils.
• Each employee line. 10 fields, a numeric employee ID, a 9-digit routing code, a valid IBAN, real calendar dates, a sensible number of days, amounts written as numbers with two decimals, and no negatives.
• Duplicates and stray spaces. The same employee ID twice, or spaces around a value, which are invisible but break the match.
• The file name, if you upload one: the .SIF extension and the establishment ID at the start.

What it can’t check

It cannot know whether an account exists, whether a labour card is current, or what your bank’s own rules are. Records are also checked against MOHRE’s data, which is the category of rejection that is hardest to catch by eye. Use your bank’s validation mode for the final word.

Fixing the usual suspects

• Total does not match: recalculate it from the lines, and look for a rounding difference in overtime or a deduction.
• Invalid IBAN: retype it from the source and check it with the UAE IBAN validator.
• Duplicate or short employee ID: an extra or missing leading zero is the usual cause. Copy the ID from the labour card.
• Extra comma: a thousands separator such as 2,000.00 adds a field. Amounts must have no separators.

The causes are covered in more detail in why your WPS SIF file gets rejected. If you build the file by hand every month, WPS payroll software generates it from the stored bank details of each employee and approved payroll, so these errors can’t creep in, and the guide to running payroll and exporting a WPS file shows how.