Business management software and ERP for Settat and the Chaouia

Settat: the Chaouia, food processing and a university town

A provincial capital in the Casablanca-Settat region, on the motorway linking Casablanca to Marrakech, Settat sits at the heart of the Chaouia plain, one of the country's major cereal-growing areas. This farming supports a whole upstream chain, seeds, fertilisers, farm equipment, and a downstream one: storage, transport and processing. The industrial zone hosts flour mills, oilseed crushers, animal feed makers and packing businesses, alongside other industrial and service activities.

Settat is also a university town, home to Hassan I University and its business, management and technology schools. Local businesses find people trained in management and accounting there, and many want to keep their books in-house rather than hand everything over once a year.

Grain trading: buy at harvest, sell all year

A trader buys most of the volume at harvest, at prices that change from week to week, then sells throughout the year. Each goods receipt brings the goods in at net purchase cost and SOGESTIO recalculates the weighted average unit cost (CMUP). Example: 100 tonnes in stock at 3,200 DH a tonne, so 320,000 DH, then 200 tonnes bought at 2,900 DH, so 580,000 DH. Stock is worth 900,000 DH for 300 tonnes: the CMUP becomes 3,000 DH a tonne. A sale of 150 tonnes at 3,300 DH then yields a gross margin of 45,000 DH.

Stock is tracked per warehouse or storage site, with transfers and stocktaking, and batches keep a record of where goods came from. The VAT treatment specific to farm products should be confirmed with your chartered accountant before setting the rates.

• Stock valued at CMUP, recalculated on each receipt.
• Multiple warehouses with transfers and stocktaking.
• Batches to trace the origin of goods.
• Gross margin by product and by customer in the reports.
• Cheques and bills of exchange (LCN) tracked with bank, due date and status.

CGNC accounting: keeping the books in-house

In SOGESTIO, every invoice, payment, purchase and payroll run automatically creates its entry on the Moroccan chart of accounts (CGNC). Journals, general ledger, trial balance and reconciliation are available at any time, along with the financial statements: balance sheet, CPC and ESG. A preparatory XML of the tax return package is also produced, to be transferred into the official format.

Two modes coexist: a simple, jargon-free mode for owners who want to understand their figures, and an advanced mode for accountants. The external chartered accountant gets their own access with the accountant role, and the audit log records every change. Opening balances and existing entries can be imported from Excel or CSV to start mid-year.

Matching and reconciliation: accurate customer and supplier accounts

Matching (lettrage) links invoices and payments that belong together, so you know exactly what is still owed. Example: a customer settles three invoices of 18,000 DH each with a single cheque of 54,000 DH; once the cheque is matched with the three invoices, the account is cleared and no reminder goes out by mistake.

On the bank side, statements are imported in MT940 or CSV format from any Moroccan bank, and bank reconciliation checks transactions against entries. Output and input VAT are tracked as you go, and the deductions statement exports as EDI XML for SIMPL-TVA.

Flour mills, animal feed and industrial SMEs

An animal feed maker works with formulas: maize, barley, oilseed cake and supplements. On the Pro and Group plans, each formula becomes a bill of materials with quantities and losses, and the production order consumes the materials to book the finished product at real cost. Requirements planning shows what to buy to fill customer orders.

SMEs in the industrial zone also use payroll with CNSS, AMO, IR and the DAMANCOM preparation file, as well as monthly budgets by line, compared with actuals every month.

An online service, an hour from Casablanca or deep in the plain

SOGESTIO has no office in Settat: it is an online service usable anywhere in Morocco, in French, Arabic or English, with remote onboarding. A buyer touring farms at harvest time checks stock and customers from the Android app or the web app installed on iPhone, and keeps entering quotes, payments and expenses offline, with syncing once the network returns.

The On-premise edition, installed on the company's server through Docker or a Windows installer, runs without Internet for those who want to keep their data on site. The 14-day free trial needs no card; the Pro plan, with accounting, banking, purchasing and payroll, costs 449 DH/month or 4,490 DH/year excluding VAT.