A law, a statement, and everything is accelerating, in this case the dematerialization of the financial management of Moroccan companies. A few days after the entry into force of Law 69.21 on payment deadlines, the National Accounting Council published its new rules for computerized accounting.
A law, a statement, and everything is accelerating, in this case the dematerialization of the financial management of Moroccan companies. A few days after the entry into force of Law 69.21 on payment deadlines, the National Accounting Council published its new rules for maintaining computerized accounting. Two concurrent measures that, in some respects, consolidate the modernization of corporate accounting.
At the beginning of summer 2025, the executive branch promulgated a law eagerly awaited by the national economic fabric, particularly VSEs and SMEs. Coming into force on July 1, 2025, Law 69.21 thus established new rules for regulating payment deadlines in Morocco. In essence, the new regulatory framework established payment deadlines of 60, 120, and 180 days, the generalization of the obligation to report payment deadlines quarterly, and, above all, fines for non-compliance with the provisions of the law (late payment, non-declaration, incomplete declaration, unpaid penalties).
That same month, the National Accounting Council (CNC) issued a no less important opinion. While the newly promulgated Law 69.21 established a quarterly “electronic” declaration of companies’ payment deadlines, Opinion No. 24 published by the CNC established new criteria for the management of companies’ accounts kept in electronic format. These criteria are, to say the least, “strict,” and are intended to bring greater rigor and transparency to the financial management of companies, but also to the relationship between companies and the administration, particularly with the establishment of the FEC, the “File of Accounting Entries.”
Completeness irreversibility audit, and control
In the text, after recalling some “preliminary definitions” relating to the computer processing of company accounting, the opinion then sets out, in detail, the new “criteria and principles that must be met by computer processing software for accounting production.” Two general principles, one of which in particular insists on the automatic printing of all accounting statements from the data entered into the accounting software. Then, the opinion goes a little deeper into the heart of the matter. It then sets out the principle of exhaustiveness of entries, which requires automatic and sequential numbering of transactions by the accounting software, which must, moreover, be programmed in such a way as to detect anomalies and make it impossible to modify the sequential numbering of accounting entries once centralized.
This last point is important: In its opinion, the CNC has taken care to introduce provisions to eliminate any desire by a company to use information systems to evade tax regulations. This is the spirit of the principle of irreversibility of entries: the accounting software used by companies must be free of any program that would allow accounting entries to be modified, deleted, or added to a closed period. In addition to prohibiting these modifications, the opinion limits the number of periods open in a single accounting year to two.
Other technical provisions complement the legal framework. Accounting software must facilitate audits by referencing accounting supporting documents and ensure compliance with the principle of fundamental balances of double-entry bookkeeping. They must also guarantee “the integrity of accounting data” by prohibiting any deletion of an account in progress and by establishing controls before and after closing. And to guarantee the transparency of statements, accounting software must include a minimum of information such as the name of the entity concerned by the accounting data, the name uniquely identifying the type of statement, the financial year and period concerned, the production date of the statement, the reference and precise version of the software used to produce this statement and, finally, continuous page numbering.”
The opinion finally concludes the importance of securing access to accounting software, facilitating the traceability of operations, saving and archiving all data and documenting all information relating to the information system used.
Software upgrade
Thus, in one month, the executive has given a real boost to the modernization of corporate accounting management. In addition to the introduction of the obligation to “electronic” declare companies’ payment deadlines (even if no invoice is overdue), all the other technical provisions introduced by Law 69.21 (payment deadlines, invoicing date, etc.) and the management of non-payment risks call for an acceleration of the digitalization of corporate accounting. A dynamic that the CNC supports by issuing new rules that accounting software must now satisfy to comply with the objectives and standards of the General Accounting Standards Code (CGNC). Given these two regulatory developments, the software, solutions, IT systems, and ERP used by companies are facing new challenges, both technical and functional.
It is with this in mind that just three months after the promulgation of these two texts, Sage Maroc presented its “Intuit-EDI/ECF” solution. The idea is to support companies affected by Law 69.21 by offering their accounting managers new modules and features that will allow them to better monitor the movement of tax regulations. The first is a reporting library to anticipate penalty risks and better control purchasing processes. The second contribution of the solution is the automation of the transfer of reports to company managers. The third, and final new feature, is the ability to carry out, in an integrated and secure manner, a remote declaration. These are all management modules that companies will now need to keep their accounts in electronic format (mandatory since the 2025 Finance Act) through agile, functional, integrated software and ERP, and above all, those that comply with the law and tax standards.
