Purchasing software in Morocco: from purchase request to supplier payment

Where an SME loses money on purchasing

In many Moroccan companies, a purchase is decided over the phone: the site manager calls the usual supplier, the goods arrive, the invoice follows and accounting pays it. Nobody compared prices, nobody checked that the quantity invoiced is the quantity delivered, and the price negotiated at the start of the year is forgotten three months later.

One by one, these gaps look small: ten bags invoiced but never delivered, a discount not applied, an invoice entered twice. Over a year of purchasing they come straight out of the margin, not to mention the fraud risk when the same person orders, receives and gets the invoice paid.

• Orders placed with no sign-off and no limit
• Only one supplier consulted, out of habit
• Negotiated prices forgotten at ordering time
• Invoices paid without checking the goods receipt
• The same supplier invoice booked twice

Putting suppliers in competition with requests for quotation

A request for quotation (RFQ) starts from a need (items and quantities) and goes to at least two suppliers from your records. You enter their answers: unit price per line, delivery lead time, validity, and in the notes any special terms such as payment. SOGESTIO builds the comparison table: best price line by line, total and ranking of each offer, plus each supplier's rating drawn from past evaluations.

Example: a construction company in Marrakech consults three merchants for 200 bags of cement. The cheapest is not necessarily the right choice: supplier C offers 71 DH excl. VAT a bag, but delivers in 12 days, demands cash payment and is rated 62 out of 100. Supplier B, at 75 DH excl. VAT, delivers in 5 days and gives 60 days to pay. The buyer awards the purchase to B; the award automatically creates a purchase request at the winning prices, which then follows the normal approval workflow.

Purchase requests and approval: who can commit the company?

Every purchase starts with a purchase request: the requester lists items, quantities and, if known, the supplier. On submission the request gets a number and its content is frozen, so the approver decides on exactly what was asked. They approve it, or reject it with a reason. Nobody can approve their own request, not even the managing director.

A supplier purchase order can only be created from an approved request, and it cannot exceed it: not in quantity, unit price or total amount. Beyond that, the order goes back for approval. Other approval workflows, such as those for expenses and supplier payments, are set by amount threshold and by role.

• Request numbered and frozen as soon as it is submitted
• Every rejection comes with a reason
• Orders capped at the approved quantities and prices
• Orders only for active suppliers with a complete record (ICE and RC for a Moroccan supplier)

Framework contracts and ratings: build on your best suppliers

When you negotiate prices with a supplier for a period, for example packaging or workshop consumables for the year, the framework contract records them: supplier, start and end dates, price per item and, if you wish, a ceiling amount. When a buyer orders a covered item, the negotiated price applies automatically, and SOGESTIO tracks consumption against the ceiling from the supplier's validated invoices.

Each delivery can then be evaluated: on time or not, quality scored from 1 to 5, conforming to the order or not. SOGESTIO turns this into a score out of 100 per supplier, shown on the supplier record and in the RFQ comparison table. At the next consultation, the discussion rests on a track record rather than impressions.

Goods receipt and order / receipt / invoice matching

When goods arrive, the storekeeper records the goods receipt from the order, in several instalments if the supplier delivers partially. The receipt brings the goods into stock at net purchase cost and updates the weighted average cost.

When the invoice arrives, SOGESTIO matches it against the order (prices) and the receipts (quantities). Back to the 200 bags of cement ordered at 75 DH excl. VAT: 190 bags were received, but the invoice charges for 200. The gap is 10 × 75 = 750 DH excl. VAT, or 900 DH incl. VAT at the standard 20% rate. It is flagged on the invoice and, if you chose blocking mode, the invoice cannot be validated until the gap is resolved, so the 900 DH never go out in a payment.

A price difference between the order and the invoice is flagged the same way. The supplier's own invoice number is also mandatory, and the same invoice from the same supplier cannot be booked twice.

Supplier PDF invoices read automatically

Many suppliers now send invoices as PDFs produced by their own software. SOGESTIO reads these digital PDFs: it recognises the supplier by its ICE number, picks up the invoice number, dates, lines and totals, and prepares a draft purchase invoice for you to check before validating. Duplicates are flagged. A scan or photo of an invoice is not read: it has to be a digital PDF.

Once validated, the supplier invoice feeds payables and due dates, is posted to the CGNC accounts and enters deductible VAT. The VAT deductions statement can be exported in EDI XML format for SIMPL-TVA, to be checked with your accountant before filing.

Which plan includes purchasing?

Purchasing is not part of Starter, which covers sales, stock, expenses and petty cash. The full cycle, from purchase requests and RFQs to framework contracts, orders, receipts, matching and supplier rating, is included in Pro at 449 DH/month excl. VAT (4,490 DH/year excl. VAT, up to 10 users) and in Groupe at 990 DH/month excl. VAT, which adds several companies and up to 30 users. The 14-day free trial needs no bank card and no commitment.