The UAE is a bilingual market. Customers read English and Arabic, staff come from dozens of countries, and official paperwork is often in Arabic. Software that treats Arabic as an afterthought creates broken PDFs, unreadable invoices and frustrated users. Here is what proper bilingual support looks like.
1. Right-to-left layout done properly
When someone switches to Arabic, the whole interface should mirror: text aligns right, navigation moves to the right, tables and forms flow right to left, and icons that imply direction flip. The tricky part is mixed content, such as an English company name inside an Arabic sentence or a phone number inside a table. Good software keeps each part readable.
2. Arabic that prints correctly
Many systems display Arabic on screen but produce PDFs with disconnected letters or reversed words. Test this early: create an invoice with an Arabic customer name, an Arabic description and a mix of numbers, then open the PDF. Ask whether the system uses a font with full Arabic shaping support.
3. Bilingual invoices and quotations
A common UAE format shows each label in both languages, “Tax Invoice / فاتورة ضريبية”, with the customer’s preferred language for descriptions. Make sure your required VAT fields, such as the TRN, sequential number and AED amounts, appear clearly in either layout. See our tax invoice checklist.
4. Numbers, dates and currency
Most UAE businesses use Western digits (0–9) in documents, while some customers prefer Arabic-Indic digits. Dates may need Gregorian and Hijri options for contracts. Currency should default to AED with two decimals. Let the user choose rather than forcing a format.
5. Search and data entry
Staff will type names in Arabic and customers will be searched in English. Good search handles both, ignores optional diacritics and treats common spelling variants of names such as Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohammad sensibly. Check that your database stores text in UTF-8 so nothing turns into question marks.
6. Customer messages in their language
Email templates, WhatsApp messages and reminders should be sent in the customer’s preferred language. Store the language on the customer record and choose the template automatically. Our payment and notification flows follow the same principle.
7. A website that works in both languages
If you serve Arabic-speaking customers, an Arabic version of key pages can win searches your competitors miss. Use proper language tags and separate URLs for each language instead of auto-translating on the fly. See our local SEO guide.
Test before you buy
- Create a customer with an Arabic name and a mixed Arabic/English address.
- Issue an invoice and download the PDF.
- Search for the customer in both languages.
- Send a test email and WhatsApp message in Arabic.
- Switch the interface to Arabic and click through the main screens.
Key takeaways
- Check right-to-left layouts on the main screens.
- Print an Arabic invoice to a PDF and read it carefully.
- Make sure search works in both languages.
- Store each customer’s preferred language.
- Keep VAT fields clear in both layouts.
How Crafts Software can help
We build bilingual English and Arabic interfaces, invoices and customer messages as standard, tested on real data.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules and thresholds change, so confirm current requirements with the relevant authority or a licensed adviser before you act.
Need software built around how your UAE business really works? Tell us what you need or browse our software and request a demo. We customise, install and support it.