A free human resources system designed for charities will launch next month and is currently being trialled by seven charities.

UK Youth and Farm Africa are among the charities trialling the platform CiviHR, which an integrated, open-source HR management application.

CiviHR said the service said it can be downloaded and used for free, or used as a hosted service for a "modest charge", which has not yet been revealed. Any charity is able to use the system.

The other charities in the trial are Future First in the UK, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India, Valley Rescue Mission in the US, SNEHA in India and BC NDP in Canada.

The solution includes staff records, recruitment, appraisals and absence management, and also provides all staff with a remotely accessible self-service portal and a separate portal for managers.

Development of the platform was funded by Zing, a private foundation. A launch event will be held at Google on 8 September.