Law No. 69-21 amended the Commercial Code to regulate payment terms between traders established in Morocco. The starting point was well known: late payments were strangling small businesses, which did not dare take action against their customers for fear of losing them. Lawmakers therefore chose to make late payers pay directly. On paper, the rule is simple. In practice, it forces accounting and purchasing departments to rethink the way they process invoices.

Which deadlines must be met?

If nothing has been agreed between the customer and the supplier, the deadline is 60 days from the invoice date. The two parties may agree on a longer period, up to a maximum of 120 days, and a few sectors benefit from specific deadlines.

The most important change concerns the starting point: it is the invoice date that counts, no longer the delivery date. In return, the supplier must invoice no later than the last day of the month in which the goods were delivered or the service performed. It has also become essential to state the agreed deadline in black and white in the contract or purchase order, before starting to work together.

Is your company affected?

The law came into force in stages. Large companies were the first to be targeted, then the threshold was lowered to include companies with revenue above 2 million dirhams. In March 2026, the DGI (the Moroccan tax administration) clarified that no sector is exempt from the scheme, and that holding companies as well as professional civil partnerships may be subject to it. For most SMEs, the question is therefore settled: they fall within the scope of the law.

Declarations and fines

Every quarter, the company files an online declaration with the DGI. It lists the invoices paid late, their references, how they were paid and the number of months of delay.

The late-payment fine is calculated on the basis of Bank Al-Maghrib's key interest rate, plus 0.85% for each additional month of delay. This money does not go to the supplier but to the State, and it is not tax-deductible. Failing to declare, declaring late or submitting an incomplete declaration exposes the company to a separate penalty of between 5,000 and 250,000 dirhams, depending on revenue.

The scheme has not remained theoretical. According to the Payment Terms Observatory, companies have already paid more than one and a half billion dirhams in fines.

Where things get stuck

Take a common case. An invoice arrives by email to an assistant, who forwards it to the relevant department. The manager is travelling and approves it ten days later. Accounting then notices a discrepancy with the goods receipt and sends it back to purchasing. By the time it finally reaches the payment list, a good part of the 60 days has already gone by.

This is the real problem with Law 69-21 for many companies: the clock starts ticking on the invoice date, while the internal approval workflow was often not designed to move quickly. And when it is time to prepare the quarterly declaration, information has to be gathered from the ERP, Excel files and email exchanges.

What SEMS concretely brings

SEMS manages the entire journey, from order to payment. Supplier invoices are read automatically by OCR as soon as they arrive, so the correct invoice date is captured without re-keying. They are then matched against the purchase order and the goods receipt (3-way matching). Compliant invoices go through without delay, and only exceptions are escalated to the teams.

The payment management module calculates due dates according to the payment term set in the contract and highlights payments at risk of exceeding the limit. Dashboards continuously show the average payment time, invoices nearing their due date and those already overdue, which are precisely the figures required in the quarterly declaration.

Paying on time also matters beyond the fines. A customer who honors its commitments carries more weight when renegotiating prices or asking a supplier for a concession.

Where to start

The most useful step is to measure the actual situation before changing anything. How many days does it take you on average to pay an invoice? How long does it remain in approval? At which stage do files pile up? Next, review your contracts and purchase order templates to check that the stated payment term complies with the law.

Once this diagnosis has been made, it quickly becomes clear what is worth automating. SEMS teams carry out this work with Moroccan companies, with contacts who know the local regulations.

The information in this article is provided for general purposes only. For a specific situation, your chartered accountant or tax advisor remains the best person to consult.