In order for any pass program involving validation to be successful, the barcodes and magswipes used in the program must be properly encoded. Thorough testing of barcodes and magswipes must be done before launching any validation program!

The format of the barcode or magswipe is determined by the functionality required by the pass program (for instance, auto-sales vs. automated discounts) and the location of the validation (within Sales or within ScanMan or GateKeeper modules).

Because a single card may be used in many different programs and also be scanned or swiped using multiple options (Sales scanner or keyboard swipe, Symbol unit, gate scanner) it is often helpful to encode both a barcode and a magswipe for use different programs.