In $2020$ Riad and Daoud started R&D Cart Company to manufacture electrical carts which they think would be a profitable business. So$,$ they designed and manufactured a model that they called the QUICK. By $2022$ R&D Company was making three separate models, all powered by different cylinder motor sizes. R&D bought the engine and electronics from China because it is cheaper, but the rest of the parts are made locally. R&D used local vocational training centers to build the different pieces of the products. The finished pieces are then brought to R&D manufacturing shop, where a small assembly team turns $150$ to $200$ parts into finished carts. The final assembly is done by two workers on a simple stand in the middle of the shop floor. Once assembled, each cart is tested carefully before the cart is handed off to its new owner. In $2023,$ the company sold $160$ carts. R&D estimate that their facility and current network of suppliers support a production run of $500$ a year and that the company will rise above the break$-$even point when they reach $250$ motorcycles, which equates to revenues of just under $$2$ million. Using the information provided, answer the following questions about R&D Carts: $$ If you were the cost accountant for R&D Cart Company, what kinds of cost accounting issues would you be looking at$?$

$1.$ What are the direct costs?

$2.$ What are the indirect costs and the cost drivers?

$3.$ How would you allocate both direct and indirect costs?

$4.$ What are the pros and cons of the different methods that you might suggest? $5.$ What kinds of differences do you see between accounting for mass$-$produced products like purses and hand$-$crafted products built$-$to$-$order like Quick Cart?