Bookkeeping in Morocco: how do you organize it in 2026?

Law 9-88 and the CGNC (which sets out the chart of accounts, the accounting principles and the presentation of the accounts) require proper, fair and complete accounts, kept in dirhams, in financial years of 12 months in principle, in three statutory books (general journal, general ledger and inventory book, the general journal and the inventory book being numbered and initialled (cotés et paraphés) by the commercial court registry (greffe du tribunal de commerce)), with five financial statements (états de synthèse) at the year-end (balance sheet, CPC, ESG, TF, ETIC) and a retention period of 10 years. These rules, the accounting principles and the deadlines for approving and filing the accounts are detailed in our guide on the accounting obligations of companies in Morocco.

From registration, the company designates who will keep its accounts: an in-house department, a chartered accountant or a certified accountant. No law requires a SARL to entrust its accounts to an external professional, but responsibility for their regularity lies with the manager.

The chartered accountant, governed by Law No. 15-89 and registered with the Order of Chartered Accountants (Ordre des Experts-Comptables), can keep, review and certify the company's accounts; our guide on whether a chartered accountant is mandatory in Morocco explains when one becomes essential and how their fees are set. The certified accountant (Law No. 127-12) can also keep the accounts of very small businesses and SMEs (TPE and PME). The statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes, CAC), who is also a chartered accountant registered with the Order, carries out the statutory audit of the accounts under the conditions laid down by Law 17-95 for the SA (always mandatory) and by Law 5-96 for the SARL (Article 80: CAC mandatory if turnover excluding VAT exceeds 50 million MAD). In an SAS, the CAC is mandatory above the legal thresholds (Law 5-96 as amended and supplemented by Law 19-20). The conditions for appointing a CAC are detailed in our guide on the mandatory statutory auditor.

The CGI 2026 provides for several regimes:

• Actual profit regime (régime du résultat réel): full accounts, mandatory for all companies subject to IS (SARL, SARL AU, SA, SAS), with a rate of 20% if net taxable profit is below 100 million MAD and 35% from that threshold (40% for the financial sector, Article 19 CGI 2026)
• CPU (Single Professional Contribution, Contribution Professionnelle Unique): simplified regime reserved for natural persons subject to IR whose turnover does not exceed the thresholds set by the CGI (traders, craftspeople and service providers operating in their own name); it replaced the former flat-rate regime (régime du forfait) and never applies to a company
• Auto-entrepreneur (Law 114-13): simplified accounting with a simple register of purchases and sales, turnover ceilings of 500,000 MAD (trade, industry, crafts) and 200,000 MAD (services)

A commercial company therefore cannot opt for a simplified tax regime: it keeps full accounts and files its tax return every year.

Every entry must be backed by a supporting document: invoice, contract, purchase order, delivery note, bank statement, payslip, etc. Invoices issued and received must contain the particulars required by the CGI (identity and ICE of the parties, sequential number, date, nature and price of the goods or services, amount of VAT) for the expenses to be deductible (Articles 145 and 146 CGI 2026). Documents and books are kept for 10 years from the end of the financial year (Article 22 Law 9-88; Article 211 CGI 2026), on paper or in electronic form, and must be able to be presented to the tax authorities in the event of an audit.

Law No. 43-20 on trust services for electronic transactions allows:

• The advanced electronic signature of accounting documents and company deeds
• The electronic seal of legal entities
• Electronic time-stamping guaranteeing a certified date (date certaine)
• Archiving with evidential value for the 10-year retention period

Since the 2026 Finance Law (Law No. 50-25), accounts must also be kept in electronic format and the company must be able to provide the tax authorities, in particular in the event of an audit, with an accounting entries file (fichier des écritures comptables, FEC) compliant with opinion No. 24 of the National Accounting Council (Conseil National de la Comptabilité). The accounting software must guarantee sequential numbering of entries, the impossibility of deleting a validated entry and the link between each entry and a supporting document. Non-compliant software weakens the accounts in the event of a tax audit.

The frequency of VAT returns and the full calendar of the annual obligations of companies in Morocco are detailed in our dedicated guides.

Irregular accounts expose the company to the following consequences, presented together with the other penalties for non-compliance by businesses in Morocco:

• Rejection of the accounts during a tax audit in the event of serious irregularities (Article 213 CGI 2026)
• Reconstruction of turnover and profit by the authorities
• Ex officio assessment (taxation d'office) in the event of failure to file a return or failure to present the accounting documents (Articles 228 and 229 CGI 2026)
• Surcharges and late payment penalties on the reassessed duties
• Liability of directors: civil and criminal penalties provided for by Law 5-96 and Law 17-95 (failure to prepare the financial statements, accounts not giving a true and fair view) and by the Commercial Code in the event of insolvency proceedings (procédure collective)

To keep your accounts, here is what you need: a professional or an in-house department, compliant software, properly filed supporting documents and a closing calendar that is adhered to. With Charikaty, a private Moroccan legal-tech platform, you do everything online: once your company is registered, our accounting service puts you in touch with a chartered accountant registered with the Order of Chartered Accountants (Law 15-89) or a certified accountant registered on the roll of the Professional Organization of Certified Accountants (Organisation professionnelle des comptables agréés) (Law 127-12), who are Charikaty partners, to keep your accounts in accordance with Law 9-88, the CGNC and the CGI 2026, and we provide your corporate secretarial services (secrétariat juridique): minutes approving the accounts, filing of the financial statements with the commercial court registry and updates to the commercial register. You send your documents online, we coordinate the rest.

More than 250 companies have already been set up with Charikaty.