Almost, but not quite...
Use one of the yeast calculators mentioned in this thread - they're great for Ales or Lagers, just make sure to specify what you're doing. And check with the manufacturer for what the right temperature is for the specific yeast strain you're using. Ale strains tend to like significantly warmer temps than lager strains, and lager strains tend to like temps in the low 50's, mostly.
So, if you're doing a lager, if you pitch the correct amount of yeast, typically you can actually gradually bring the beer down to the ideal temperature for its strain and leave it there until it reaches FG. In some cases, you may want actually bring it up about 10 degrees when it's about 75% of the way to its FG, but if you stick with that American Lager strain this probably won't be the case for you.
After you've it FG, that's when you rack to secondary and store at 40 - but typically you want to do so for more like a month or two. Basically, the higher your OG, the longer you want this lagering stage to last.
Ales are easier - just get them to the right temperature for the Ale yeast, pitch the ale yeast, and let the yeast do their thing. And try to keep them at that temperature! (That can be easier said than done - fermenting beer makes heat!)
And just to make sure I'm absolutely clear - when I mentioned before to bring your wort up to 55 or 60 and pitch, I meant to bring it up to that temperature, pitch the yeast, and then to drop it down to the 50-55 range as soon as you notice bubbles. NOT when the bubbles stop. You want most of your fermentation to happen at 50-55, but the slightly warmer temperature will help your yeast to get started up, since you're technically probably still not pitching enough yeast.