Software for a small business in Morocco what to buy first, what to skip, and what nobody will invoice you for

A small business in Morocco needs software for five jobs, and only five: writing and sending documents, keeping files somewhere that survives a stolen laptop, producing quotes and receipts, talking to clients, and not losing everything to a virus or a locked screen demanding a ransom. The rest can wait for year two.

Two facts decide almost everything here. The first is that most of your client conversation already happens on WhatsApp, so you are not buying a communication platform — you are buying the paperwork that follows it. The second is tax. If your activity is registered — patente, RC, IF, ICE — your accountant needs a proper invoice for every expense you intend to deduct.

ROSH™ Company Labs is not a formally registered company and issues no tax invoice. We are also independent, affiliated with no software vendor at all. That is fine for a freelancer or an unregistered side activity. If you are registered and your accountant is strict, read section four before you order anything from us.

Buy one office suite before anything else. Not antivirus, not design software, not a CRM. The suite is what you open every working hour, and the wrong choice is paid back in months of file conversion.

Google Workspace is the easier answer if you want mail on your own domain and a clean paper trail. Google bills you per user per month and issues a real invoice, which is exactly what a registered business needs. The current rate is on Google's own page; it is not ours to quote.

Microsoft 365 is the better answer if your clients send Word and Excel files with tracked changes, heavy formatting or macros, and Google Docs does not preserve them cleanly. We resell Microsoft 365 at 100 MAD for 3 months, which is 400 MAD across a year if you renew four times.

Ask us one question before you order: does the subscription give you mail on your own domain? Most cheap Microsoft 365 subscriptions do not. If an address like contact@yourcompany.ma matters to you, that is a business plan bought from Microsoft or from a hosting provider, not from us.

Windows already ships with Microsoft Defender. For a one-person business that browses carefully and holds no client payment data, it is genuinely enough. Buy paid antivirus when the situation changes: several machines, staff who click things, client files you cannot afford to lose to ransomware. Bitdefender Total Security is 399 MAD a year for 5 devices — about 80 MAD per device per year.

Free tools that are actually good enough:

• LibreOffice — a complete office suite, free, opens and saves Word and Excel files.
• Google Docs, Sheets and Drive on a free Gmail account — fine until you need your own domain.
• Bitwarden — a password manager with a free tier, better than the notebook beside your screen.
• WhatsApp Business — catalogue, away messages, labels. Free.
• Google Business Profile — free, and the highest-return hour of setup a local business can spend.
• GIMP, Inkscape and Krita — free image, vector and painting tools.
• Thunderbird — free desktop mail if webmail tires you.

Delay a CRM until you start forgetting follow-ups. Delay accounting software until your accountant asks for it — plenty of small Moroccan businesses run for years on one spreadsheet and a folder of scanned receipts.

Here is the arithmetic, using only prices we actually charge. Microsoft 365 at 100 MAD for 3 months is 400 MAD across a year if you renew four times. Bitdefender Total Security is 399 MAD a year and covers 5 devices. Together, 799 MAD a year for the office suite and security on a small team's machines.

Add Google AI Pro at 250 MAD a year if you write a lot: 1,049 MAD. Add Adobe Creative Cloud at 400 MAD for 4 months — three purchases cover twelve months, so 1,200 MAD — only if design is part of what you sell: 2,249 MAD a year, everything included. For anything else on our list, contact for pricing.

Two costs sit outside that calculation: a domain name and hosting, bought from a registrar or a host rather than from us, and your accountant's fees.

The invoice problem: ROSH™ Company Labs is not a formally registered company and issues no tax invoice with an ICE. What you pay us cannot be entered as a deductible expense. If your business is registered and needs that, buy those licences directly from the vendor, or from a Moroccan reseller who invoices. Better to read it here than after paying.

Spend in this sequence, and stop at whichever step your business has not reached yet.

1. Week one: a Gmail account, Google Drive, WhatsApp Business, a Google Business Profile, Bitwarden, and Microsoft Defender left switched on. Cost: nothing.
2. When free stops being enough — you need mail on your own domain, or client Office files keep breaking — choose your suite. Google Workspace if the invoice matters, Microsoft 365 at 100 MAD for 3 months if it does not.
3. When you hold client data or add a second machine: Bitdefender Total Security, 399 MAD a year, 5 devices.
4. When design becomes something you sell rather than a favour: Adobe Creative Cloud, 400 MAD for 4 months. Until then, GIMP and Inkscape carry you further than expected.
5. The day you register the business: revisit every subscription and move the ones you need to deduct onto a supplier who invoices. That may mean leaving us on those lines, and it is the correct decision.

Orders close over WhatsApp. The licences we sell are genuine and bought at Moroccan prices; purchases are at your own risk, with no refund, warranty or guarantee promised beyond helping you install and activate. We are independent — not a partner, authorised reseller or agent of Microsoft, Google, Adobe or Bitdefender.