UAE guide
Exchange rate displays for UAE exchange houses
What a rate board in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah has to get right: AED prices, Arabic beside English, the remittance currencies customers ask for, and one set of rates on every branch's screen.
Walk through any mall in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah and you pass an exchange house every few minutes. Most have a rate board in the window or behind the counter, and customers read it before they queue. In a market this busy, the board is often what decides whether someone walks in.
This guide covers what an exchange rate display in the UAE needs to do well, and how to set one up so every branch shows the right AED price, in Arabic and English, the moment you change it.
Show every price in dirhams
A UAE board quotes how many dirhams a customer pays or receives for one unit of each foreign currency. The US dollar is the easy one: the dirham has been pegged to it at 3.6725 since 1997, so the USD row barely moves. Every other row moves with the market, and those are the ones customers compare between counters.
In Rate Display, a rate feed's Base currency is AED from the start, so fetched rates arrive as dirhams per foreign unit with no conversion to set up. You can still type rates by hand, import them from Excel, or mix the two: a rate you type stays until the next fetch.
Arabic and English on the same board
Arabic sits beside English on shop signage across the UAE, and an exchange board is read by Emiratis, Arab residents and a large expatriate population at once. The board should show both without making either language an afterthought.
- Every currency has an English and an Arabic name, and boards show both together by default. You can choose one language per theme if a branch prefers it.
- Column headings take an Arabic heading too, so Cash Buy also reads شراء نقدي.
- The Arabic board is a full right-to-left layout, not a translated copy. Add
/ar/before the code in a branch's screen address to open it.
The currencies UAE customers ask for
Travel money matters, but much of a UAE counter's trade is people sending part of their salary home. The board should lead with the currencies your own customers ask for, which for many branches means the remittance corridors rather than only the euro and the pound.
| Group | Currencies | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Remittance | INR, PKR, PHP, BDT, EGP, NPR, LKR | Salaries sent home to South Asia, the Philippines and Egypt |
| Gulf | SAR, OMR, KWD, BHD, QAR | Travel and business across the GCC |
| Travel | USD, EUR, GBP, TRY, THB | Holidays and business trips |
Switch currencies on under Currencies we deal in in Settings and put them in the order you want. A branch can show its own list, so a branch near a labour accommodation area and one in an airport can lead with different currencies. Add a Transfer or TT column with Add column if you quote remittance rates apart from cash.
One network, many emirates
Many UAE exchange houses run branches across several emirates. Without a central system, each branch updates its own board, and sooner or later one shows yesterday's rate. A web-based display fixes that: you save a rate once and every screen in the network shows it within seconds.
- Groups by emirate or mall. Put branches into groups such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, then set margins, themes, scroll news and ads for a whole group at once.
- Margins per branch. A margin is set per currency, per column, and resolves branch first, then group, then the network default. An airport branch can price differently from a neighbourhood one without anyone editing rates by hand.
- Safety checks. A rate that moves more than your Rate safety limit waits for someone to accept it, so a typing slip never reaches the window.
- Text instead of a price. A cell can show a short text such as Call us in place of a figure, for a currency you only quote on request.
Local time, local weather
The UAE keeps Gulf Standard Time, UTC+4, all year with no daylight saving. Set each branch's Time zone and City under Clock and weather, and the board shows the right time and the local temperature, which in a UAE summer is something customers glance at as often as the rates.
Screens that run all day
UAE exchange houses often keep long hours, and many mall branches open every day of the week. The board needs no special hardware: any TV that opens a web page will do, through its own browser or a streaming stick. If the internet drops, the board keeps its last rates on screen and reconnects by itself.
Step 1: Create your company
Start the 7-day trial. You get one branch with its screen address, the ready-made themes and the free rate sources.
Step 2: Set your currencies
Switch on your remittance, Gulf and travel currencies, in your own order, with English and Arabic names.
Step 3: Enter AED rates
Type them, import them from Excel, or connect a feed with AED as its base currency. Then set your margins.
Step 4: Open it on the TV
Type the branch's short screen address into the TV's browser, add /ar/ for the Arabic board, and go full screen.
The full walkthrough, with every button name, is in how to set up an exchange rate display.
Built in Dubai
Rate Display is made by Direct Axis Technology in Al Qusais, Dubai, in the same time zone as your branches, with support in Arabic and English. To size a plan for your branches, see pricing or talk to us. To see it on your own screen first, start the free trial.