Please help cannot figure this out.
1. building $1,800,000 - asset
2.acct. payable $478,000 - liabilities
3. acct receivable $298,000 - asset
4. accrued salaries payable $59,000 - liabilities
5. accumulated depreciation -$80,000 - liabilities
6. cash $30,000 - asset
7. cost of goods sold $9,880,000 - liabilities
8. depreciation expense $30,000 - asset
9. dividends $0
10. Income tax expense $80,000 - liabilities
11.land $207,000 - asset
12. Long term debt $2,603,000 -liabilities
13. Merchandise inventory $545,000 - asset
14.paid in capital $120,000 - liabilities or equity confused
15. Research expense $878,000 - liabilities
16. Retained earnings 2010 $0 - asset
17. Retained earnings 2009 $9,000 - asset
18. Vehicles $171,000 - liabilities
19. Sales revenue $11,580,000 - asset
20. SG&A expenses $380,000 - liabilities

Cannot even this out on assets I got $4,499,000
Liabilities I got $14,108,000

I need help understanding how this works.

What you have here are some "revenue" items and some "balance sheet""items

Revenue items are those items which will appear in a P&L statement, and balance sheet items are those which will appear in a balance sheet. When all is said and done the debits equal the credits

It is basic accounting to separate these and make sense from them, but first you have to know which are debits and which are credits and retained earnings, the jury is out on that one except the name implies it is a credit/ Assets, debits, are something the business owns and liabilities, credits, are something the business owes

Your thinking is very asskew, sales are not an asset and cost of goods sold is not a liability, expenses are not a liability

So back to the old drawing board, as they say arrange the P&L items in one section and the balance sheet items in another and it might be clearer