Sage alternative in Morocco: what are the options and how do you switch?

Why look for a Sage alternative in Morocco?

Sage is a long-established international vendor of accounting and business management software, widely used by Moroccan accountants. On its Moroccan website it presents, among others, Sage 50 for small businesses and Sage 100 for SMEs, with installed, hosted or online versions depending on the product. Looking for an alternative does not mean the software does not work: often, the organisation has changed. Here are the questions to check.

• Access: is the software installed on a PC or server while your teams work from several sites, branches or job sites?
• Mobility: can you look up a customer, stock level or invoice from a phone?
• Language: do your users need an Arabic interface, fully right-to-left?
• Scope: are accounting, sales management, stock, payroll and banking in one tool, or in several products to connect?
• Cost model: licence, maintenance or subscription depending on the product; compare the total cost over several years with the vendor.
• Accountant: how do you exchange data with your chartered accountant (backups, exports, re-keying)?

What are the alternatives to Sage?

Changing vendor is not the only option. A Moroccan business has four families of solutions to choose from; the table on this page compares them on neutral criteria.

• Another Sage product or a hosted or online offer from the vendor: your teams and accountant keep their habits; scope and terms to check with the vendor.
• Other installed accounting or sales software, suited to a single site.
• A cloud ERP designed for Morocco, such as SOGESTIO: browser and mobile access, all modules together, Moroccan rules built in.
• A spreadsheet such as Excel, workable for a very small volume, but numbering, VAT and stock stay manual.

How do you involve your chartered accountant in the change?

As Sage is widely used by Moroccan accountants, your accounting firm may already work with it. Changing tools inside your business does not mean changing accountant, but you need to agree on who enters what, in what form they receive the data and how often.

With SOGESTIO's Pro and Group plans, your accountant can have their own access with the accountant role: journals, general ledger, trial balance, account matching, CGNC financial statements (Bilan, CPC, ESG) and Excel/CSV exports. Have them validate VAT rates, the chart of accounts and opening balances before the cut-over.

How do you migrate from Sage step by step?

Available exports depend on the Sage product and version: ask the vendor or your reseller. SOGESTIO then imports customers, suppliers, items, opening stock, opening balances and journal entries from Excel/CSV.

A control example: three unpaid customer invoices of 12,000.00 DH, 6,000.00 DH and 4,800.00 DH including VAT add up to 22,800.00 DH. That total must equal the debit balance of account 3421 Clients in the opening trial balance, and the balance must stay even, total debits equal to total credits. A difference points to a missing invoice or an unmatched payment, to fix before you start.

• Export third parties (customers and suppliers, with ICE number and IF) and items (references, prices, VAT rates).
• Carry over the trial balance at the cut-over date as opening balances, with the detail of unpaid invoices and their due dates.
• Set the opening stock per warehouse, in quantities and cost.
• Switch at the start of a period: ideally the start of the financial year, otherwise the start of a month or quarter already filed.
• Run both tools in parallel for a few weeks and compare the totals.
• Keep old Sage files readable for the whole legal retention period (a kept PC, backups or PDF printouts).

When is staying on Sage the right decision?

If your teams are trained, your processes rely on a Sage product that meets your needs and your accounting firm works in the same environment, staying is a reasonable decision: changing software always carries an organisational cost. An internal alternative may then be enough, such as another range from the vendor or a hosted or online version; compare it with a full change over the same cost horizon.

SOGESTIO, a cloud alternative designed for Morocco

SOGESTIO brings sales, stock, purchasing, banking, accounting, payroll, HR and CRM together in one platform. You use it from all your sites in the browser, in the Android app and on iPhone through the installed web app, in French, fully right-to-left Arabic or English, with a simple mode and an advanced accounting mode.

Prices are published: Starter at 199 DH excl. VAT/month (sales and invoicing, stock, expenses and cash), Pro at 449 DH excl. VAT/month with accounting and payroll, Group at 990 DH excl. VAT/month for several companies; On-premise is quoted on request. The 14-day free trial, with no credit card, lets you test with your own data.

• Journal entries generated automatically under the CGNC chart of accounts and VAT deduction statement exported as EDI XML for SIMPL-TVA.
• Payroll with a DAMANCOM preparation file and a draft 9421 statement; cheques and LCN bills of exchange, MT940 statements and bank reconciliation.
• SOGESTIO exports your validated invoices in the structured UBL 2.1 format (with ICE, IF and RC), which prepares the move to the e-invoicing system announced by the DGI.
• On-premise edition via Docker or a Windows installer that works without Internet; REST API and webhooks to connect your other tools.

About this comparison

Information about Sage, its product ranges and the other families of software is general, based on the vendors' own publications at the time of writing, including Sage's Moroccan website; it may change and should be checked with each vendor. This page does not rank solutions. Sage, Excel and the other brands mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners.