Perhaps the following will give you another idea:

create table dbo.TestSort(

tsid int identity(1,1),

datecol datetime

);

go

/*

Template: Dynamic Tally CTE - 2008

Author: Lynn A. Pettis

Date: 2013-03-12

Site: ISS, Inc -- Colorado Springs, CO

This template is the start of a dynamic Tally table for SQL Server 2008 and later

*/

with

e1(n) as (select 1 from (values (1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1),(1))dt(n)), -- 10 rows

e2(n) as (select 1 from e1 a cross join e1 b), -- 100 rows

eTally(n) as (select row_number() over (order by (select null)) from e2 a cross join e2 b) -- 10,000 rows

insert into dbo.TestSort(datecol)

select

dateadd(day, n-1, getdate())

from

eTally;

go

select

right(convert(varchar, datecol, 106), 8) as startmonth,

count(*)

from

dbo.TestSort

group by

right(convert(varchar, datecol, 106), 8), year(datecol), month(datecol)

order by

year(datecol), month(datecol);

go

drop table dbo.TestSort;

go