What you may be able to do, is create a complete SQL select statement and run from there.  This is not available for all types of databases, however.

 

In the Database Expert, connect to your database.  Right under the database name there may be an option to "Add Command".  If it's there, you can add you're own SQL to the report. 

 

Also, from experience, if you modify the SQL in an 8.5 report, it may not convert cleanly to the newer versions.  We had problems converting from 8.5 to XI because of this and we had to recreate a number of reports from scratch.  During the conversion, the SQL generated by Crystal lost its links between the tables, even though the links looked like they were correct in the Database Expert.  Deleting the links and re-drawing them did not fix the problem.

 

-Dell