John_smiths sop is the standard AIRBUS and is certainly the SOP in my outfit. The problem is, if you don't get the FCU well out of the way, the opaque methodology by which Alt* operates means you end up with multiple alt* captures which prevent you from getting VS going. All this happens very fast, so by the time you sort it out, if you have forgotton to set the FCU up above your current altitude, you are so close in that the approach is unrecoverable and a go-around is the only option!