Simple SQL logic in CRM Reports??? - Please???

There are some super basic elements that are EXTREMELY frustrating in ZOHO CRM Reports. The simplest of them being that (at least with custom modules) there is no way to simply provide a COUNT function. Why would something as simple as this not be included? SO for example of I have a number of records in a custom module that I would like to group by one of the fields and then count the number of records... NOPE.

Similar and equally as painful problem is that if you are going to group by the CREATED DATE, there is no way to restrict this to be only the date without the time (making it useless). Some simple conversion to Month, day, week, or year would be very helpful.

Thanks

Brian