WPS salary files
Set up paying agents and the company WPS profile, make the salary file from a locked payroll run, and record what the bank did with every payment.
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The UAE Wage Protection System (WPS) pays salaries through a bank or exchange house from a salary information file (SIF). ValiCrew makes that file from a locked payroll run, for the people paid by WPS, and tracks what happened to the file and to each payment in it.
Admin and HR manage WPS (wps.manage): the company profile, making the file and recording the bank's answers. Certifying the profile, downloading the file and marking it sent need wps.submit, which only Admin has by default. The bank salary file also needs salary.view. The list of paying agents is managed by Admin.
Add paying agents
Paying agents are the banks and exchange houses that pay salaries under WPS. The list is shared by every company in the workspace.
- Go to Lists & catalogs and, under Pay, choose Paying agents.
- Add an agent with its name, Agent code, Bank / exchange house and Supported destination types (IBAN, Payroll card, Paying-agent account).
- Record the Verification source, the document or reference you checked the code against, and the date in Verified at.
- Choose Create.
Only agents with a code, a source and a date can be picked for WPS. Agents are never deleted; choose Stop using instead. Once an agent is used for someone's WPS account or a company profile, its code, destination types and verification can no longer be changed.
Set up the company WPS profile
Each company has one profile: who the employer is under WPS, which agent funds the salaries and which certified file format the bank uses.
- Go to Salary and choose Company WPS profile.
- Choose Configure company WPS profile.
- Enter the WPS employer identifier, pick the company's Paying agent, enter the Adapter and Adapter version supplied for your bank or exchange house, and choose the Timezone. Then choose Submit.
- When your bank or exchange house has accepted a sample file in its acceptance testing, choose Certify after UAT approval. Enter the Institution UAT approval reference and the Approved sample SHA-256, the fingerprint of the exact sample they accepted, then confirm.
The profile shows Draft, Certified or Revoked. A file can only be made while it is certified. Changing any detail of a certified profile revokes it, and so does stopping use of its paying agent: certify it again afterwards. Revoke certification does it by hand.
Make the bank file
- Before you lock the payroll run, open WPS check on it (on the run page it is WPS preflight). It lists anything that would stop the file: the company profile, and each person's paying agent and account.
- Lock the run. See Payroll runs and payslips.
- On the locked run, choose Generate SIF and confirm.
The file holds only the locked lines paid by WPS. People paid by bank transfer or cash stay in payroll and are left out. If anyone's WPS details are incomplete, no file is made and a message lists each person with the reason.
Send the file and record what the bank did
- Go to Salary and choose Bank salary file (WPS), then pick the file.
- Choose Download the file and send it to your bank or exchange house.
- Choose Mark submitted, enter the Institution reference and, if you have it, attach an Evidence file.
- When the bank answers, choose Record ACK / NAK and pick Accept or Reject; a rejection needs the Rejection reason. If the bank sends a response file, use Import the bank's response instead.
- For each payment, choose Record an outcome: pick Which payment, the Outcome (for example Funds disbursed or Payment returned), the Institution reference and when it Occurred at.
A file made by mistake can be cancelled with Void generated file until it is marked as sent. Open the evidence log shows the file's full record.
Follow each file
The file keeps three things apart: The file, the Instructions (did the bank accept each one) and the Payments (was each person paid). Acknowledged means the bank accepted the file, not that people were paid.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not sent yet | Made but not marked as sent. |
| Sent | Marked as sent to the bank. |
| Acknowledged | The bank accepted the file. |
| Being paid | Payments are being processed. |
| Partly paid | Some payments are recorded as paid. |
| All paid | Every payment is recorded as paid. |
| Rejected | The bank rejected the file. |
| Voided | Cancelled before it was sent. |
On the page of a locked run, WPS operational monitoring shows the due date and how much was paid on time against the monitoring threshold. Only payments recorded as paid, with their date, count. It is a guide, not a legal finding.
Fix a returned payment
When a payment comes back, the file shows the person and the reason, and the Bank salary file (WPS) tab shows how many were returned.
- Choose Update bank details to open the person's Pay tab and correct their account.
- Back on the file, choose Send a correction file and confirm. It makes a new file with exactly the rejected or returned payments; the original stays as it was.
- Download, send and record the correction like any other file.