Calculate total empoyee days (as of present) that have elapsed for each month in a FY

Question

Hello, everyone,
I'm running CF server connecting to an Oracle (11g)  db.
I have a table that keeps track of projects (past, present, future) and need a way to sum the days for each project, for each month, that have happened.
For example.
ID   -
Name         
-   Start
-   Stop 
- Employees
001
Project A     
01-Oct-14
31-Dec-14      
8
002
Project B     
06-Feb-15
21-Feb-15      
9
003
Project C     
30-Oct-14
29-Nov-14      
3
004
Project D     
26-Dec-14
16-Apr-15     
21
I'm trying to create an overview where the display will have the months of a Fiscal Year go across the page, indicating the number of employee days for each project that have elapsed. (NOT counting the current day).  New requirement: To make matters even more complex, there is a related table for the employees showing what dates they actually started and stopped (not every employee starts on day 1 and ends on the last day.. some start a day or two after the project start, etc.)
I'm not wrapping my head around this, for some reason. Mental block. Any ideas?
Someone in another forum suggested a PIVOT.  That's above my paygrade (I have never used PIVOT, don't understand how it works, etc.)
V/r,
^_^

Answer 1

This may be a good start. Display by Month Year the Average and Sum Dates between Start and Stop by Project.
SELECT      CAST    (
        (CAST(MONTH(Start) AS varchar(2)) + '/01/' + CAST(YEAR(Start) AS varchar(4)))
        AS DateTime
    AS DatePeriod,
    AVG(DateDiff(day, Start, Stop)) AS AverageDaysToClose,
    SUM(DateDiff(day, Start, Stop)) AS SumTotalDaysToClose,
    Name
FROM     Projects
GROUP BY CAST    (
        (CAST(MONTH(Start) AS varchar(2)) + '/01/' + CAST(YEAR(Start) AS varchar(4)))
        AS DateTime
    Name
ORDER BY DatePeriod, Name