A profit, for once, graces the accounts of the Yellow Brick Road mortgage adviser network.But so too does an unusually long discussion by Grant Thornton on "Key audit matters".The net profit of A$1 million compares with a loss of $9.5 million in the year to June 2016. The "underlying loan book increased to $44 billion" YBR said, in reference to a book split between its own YBR brand and the Vow business acquired two years ago.A sparse media release was the extent of the briefing to layer over the financials, a document in which executive chairman Mark Bouris mainly whined about the YBR share price.The results, he said, "demonstrate the true value of the company, which isn't reflected in the current share price. "When you consider our loan book, funds under management and our brand and distribution assets, there is a strong value story there," he said. Readers of the financial statements of Yellow Brick Road instead get to ponder a long audit report that points to areas the tick and flick experts have been looking at more closely.Audit reports have in the past been rather short documents.  The YBR report is a preview of the information that accounting firms will be looking at more closely, following recent reforms to audit reporting standards. The current audit report can be four and more pages long depending on the types of issues an accounting firm has looked at during the course of conducting the external audit.They now contain a section called Key Audit Matters that alert stakeholders to various areas that are sensitive in the financial statements. In Yellow Brick Road's financial statements Grant Thornton pick off a few issues that typically cause some heartburn to chief financial officers.The audit firm noted that revenue was one of four KAMs that needed attention because of the significance of the line item, volume of transactions and complexity of revenue streams."Revenue totalled $218.6 million for the year ending 30 June 2017, and is the largest item in the Statement of Profit or Loss," the audit firm noted.It is all very well for the auditors to note that revenue is a big number that needs attention, and the auditor lists facets of their probe. The other areas that were identified in the YBR accounts were long term trail commissions, capitalised intangible assets and goodwill impairment. Long-term trail commissions require some fancy numerical footwork and the audit firm was sufficiently concerned about it to put it on the list of things to look more closely this time around."The Group recognised a net trail commission receivable asset of $49.86 million at 30 June 2017. The value of the asset is based on an external expert valuation," the audit firm said."The valuation of the net trail commission balance is considered to be a key audit matter because of judgement applied in respect to key inputs, including run off rate, as well as the valuation methodology."The Australian Securities & Investments Commission issued a media release in May this year setting down