>I have no experience in this field, so I am looking for someone who can tell me if I need a barcode package, how can I
>get it to interface into my software, and how do I get the scanned information into my Customer ID: prompt in
>cash receipts.

First, there are bar code fonts, so you just print the numbers in one of those fonts. Some bar codes have special requirements. For example, if I remember correctly, the "3 of 9" bar code (Borg bar code? *g*) requires stars on each side, so you would have to print *12345* for it to work correctly.

As for the reader, you can get readers that plug in the keyboard port and thus emulate the keyboard. This way, it's like if the user just typed in the code bar, so there's nothing special about handling such a reader.

HTH!